What I want to know about the #FrancisScottKeyBridge collapse in #Baltimore is why weren’t there tugboats guiding the ship under the bridge? Was it budget cuts? Are tugboats no longer a thing? #BridgeCollapse
Tugs are used only to maneuver ships into the channel. That's SOP nowadays, not due to budget cuts or anything. Once in the channel the ship uses its own power to leave the harbor.
There's usually a harbor pilot on the bridge of the departing ship, to advise the captain of local features, conditions, etc.
In this case, the ship lost power at a critical moment and did not regain propulsion until seconds before the crash. It departed the channel. We don't know why yet.
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