American Pilots' Association executive director Clay Diamond said that the pilot controlling the Dali, the ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, tried to slow her down before the crash.
He said he has been in close contact with officials from the Association of Maryland Pilots, who described what happened as the ship approached the bridge.
According to the Baltimore Banner, two tugboats operated by McAllister Towing and Transportation helped the Dali out of the Port of Baltimore between 00:30 and 01:00 local time (04:30 to 05:00 UTC) before peeling off.
Diamond then explained that when the ship was a few minutes out, she lost all power, including its engines. This prompted the pilot to order the rudder hard to port (make a hard left turn) to keep the ship from turning right and to order the port (left-side) anchor to be dropped. The pilot then contacted a dispatch office to get the bridge shut down as a precaution.
Diamond also said widely circulated images show the ship's lights turning off and then back on, sparking questions about whether the vessel had regained power. But, he said, the emergency generators that kicked in turned the lights back on but not the ship's propulsion.
Every foreign-flagged ship coming into US waters must have a state-licensed pilot on board, the Associated Press explained.
The Dali flew the flag of Singapore during the bridge collapse.
Pilots board the ships before they enter the local waterways and take "navigational control" of the ship, Diamond said. This means they give orders to the crew regarding the ship's speed and direction.
"These are among the most highly trained mariners in the world," he added.
SUNY Maritime School of Maritime Education and Training dean Capt. Jeffrey Spillane told the Banner that ports usually mandate tugboats to stay with cargo vessels for a specific period. But with multiple systems apparently failing on the ship, he said that the presence of tugboats "certainly would not have hurt."
"The tugboats are there to get you off the dock, spin the vessel around, and help with precise movement that is difficult for a large cargo ship," he said. "Once the vessel feels like they are all set, the tugboats get dismissed by the vessel's pilot."
Spillane added that the ship's captain could also request that the tugboats stay for a longer period of time.
