Claim Workers Noticed Dali Electrical Issues Before Bridge Crash Redacted—and Affirmed

Conflicting claims say the container vessel Dali was experiencing electrical failures while docked for 48 hours at Seagirt Marine Terminal but was allowed to depart anyway. The vessel then lost power in Baltimore Harbor and knocked down the Francis Scott Key Bridge early on March 26, killing six construction workers and shutting down—potentially for weeks—the ninth-busiest commercial port in the United States. Officials with the Baltimore Department of Transportation’s Dockmaster’s Office, the “harbormaster” in Baltimore Harbor, and the United States Coast Guard maintain they were never notified of any issues with the ship while it was pier-side. The assertion surfaced on March 27 when Julie Mitchell—a Baltimore director with Container Royalty Fund that manages benefits and advocates for port workers—told a CNN affiliate that longshoremen and others told her the Singapore-flagged container carrier had struggled pier-side with “total power failure, loss of engine power, everything.”...