Eight weeks since it crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the Dali container ship has been re-floated and moved out of the wreckage.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Dali was floated around 6:40 a.m. EDT on May 20, and was then pulled out tugboats shortly after that. The ship crashed into the Key Bridge on March 26, killing six maintenance workers and collapsing the bridge into the main shipping channel.
Progress update: the M/V DALI is seen in transit with the @portofbalt in the background. pic.twitter.com/3cOwoeqfLI
— USACE Baltimore (@USACEBaltimore) May 20, 2024
On May 13, the USACE detonated controlled explosives on the wreckage of the bridge to free the Dali. A day later, the Port of Baltimore announced that a 45-foot-deep channel had been opened for limited commercial vessel traffic. The port’s permanent 50-foot-channel is still slated to reopen by the end of May.
A report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) described how the Dali experienced multiple blackouts both before and after leaving the port on March 26. Although the ship had backup generators, NTSB chief Jennifer Homendy told a Congressional committee that those systems weren’t equipped to fully power the vessel, clarifying how that’s largely an industry standard for most cargo ships.
