A tragedy which might not be explained for some time to come, but a dramatic total collapse after the main support was destroyed by a container ship.
The captain is the ultimate authority on his own ship but almost always, in my knowledge, defers to the pilot on the bridge (of the ship). There is also, unless things have changed in the 60 years since I was a seafarer, an ordinary seaman manning the wheel but a deliberate act of mutiny is highly unlikely as the cause as such large ships take a long way to turn, and anything untoward would have been noticed.
So my money is on the pilot. I wonder how long before we find out.
If you watch the full 5 minute video on X, you see that the cargo ship losses electrical power twice before the impact.
The crew appears to restore some power after the first outage by firing up the backup generators causing a belch of soot from the funnel.
It’s been 35 years since I worked on a much smaller survey vessel, but when the power went out on her, we lost everything apart from the radar and radios which had a separate bank of back up batteries.
No rudder control, no engine control, no bow thrusters. That was unnerving enough drifting 50 miles off the Danish coast, seeing everyone not envolved in the repairs manning their emergency posts or donning survival suits.
In a ship the size of that cargo vessel, the tides/currents and the ship’s momentum makes the crew passengers when they lose the ability to steerage.
Even attempting a “crash stop” requires control of the propellers, but that’s the absolute last resort as it basically scraps the entire propulsion system,
I could find only this (obviously speeded-up) - I assume it’s genuine
Based on its lights turning off and on, the ship appears to lose power twice before impact. It's unknown if it experienced a complete loss of power, but if it did, several key systems would likely have been impacted. pic.twitter.com/b9474nSSd1
I saw the on and off too but if that was the cause then they were already off target for the centre of the bridge just seconds before the impact. I admit though that it might be the camera angle which gave that impression.
Whatever the cause the result is going to be expensive, I don’t know how long it will take them to dredge the wreckage before all those ships trapped in the port are able to sail. Also, that road is part of the interstate system and either all or both of the cost of of re-routing heavy traffic through, or round, the city will be very high. Looking at the map it might not be so bad but I’ll wait for my American driving colleagues to opine ( ) on that.
So now it seems certain that the ship lost power, but the one thing I don’t understand is why it came to a dead stop when it hit the bridge as it was reputed to be doing 2 or 3 knots, which for a ship that size and weight is alot in stopping terms.
I would have expected it to carry on through carrying bits of the bridge with it, unless it buried its nose in the solid concrete base of the bridge pylon.
There was time though to radio and bar more traffic from entering the bridge. Small mercy with only 6 presumed dead.
) on that. 
