Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse: MS Borealis ship suffered blackout on Sydney ... trends now
A cruise ship suffered a blackout on Sydney Harbour just weeks before a similar scenario in the US led to the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse.
The MS Borealis, a 238 metre-long cruise liner, sailed out from Sydney's White Bay Cruise Terminal at Rozelle on February 28.
The ship lost power about 50 minutes after passing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the vessel navigated the western channel near South Head late at night.
The Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines ship then drifted for 'one mile ... under pilotage' before it was anchored for several hours as power was restored, a source with knowledge of the Port Authority report on the incident told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The MS Dali crashed when it suffered a similar power outage shortly after sailing out from the Port of Baltimore in the US on Tuesday, causing the cargo ship to lose steering and drift into a concrete supporting pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
A large part of the 2.6km-long bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River. Six maintenance workers who were on the bridge are missing and presumed dead.
Cruise liner MS Borealis (pictured) suffered a similar electrical blackout in Sydney Harbour in February
Police dive boats work around part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge on Wednesday
Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has since confirmed the Sydney incident.
'Shortly after leaving Sydney, Australia, at 11.50pm (AEDT) on 28th February, our ship Borealis lost power for a short amount of time,' a spokesperson said.
'Our on-board technical team worked hard to establish the cause and restored all systems quickly. The ship returned to full operational power and continued its onward world cruise itinerary as planned.'
It is understood a tug boat that had been guiding the ship through Sydney Harbour could not reattach its cable after the cruise liner suffered the blackout.
The risk of what happened to the Francis Scott Key Bridge reoccurring to Sydney Harbour Bridge is very unlikely as the bridge structures are vastly different.
The Sydney bridge has two supporting piers located on land either side of the harbour, unlike the Baltimore one, which had piers in the water.
Professor Wije 'Ari' Ariyaratne, who was the NSW director of bridges and structures between 2000 and 2019 told the newspaper that Sydney Harbour Bridge engineer John Bradfield had gone with a 'two-pier arch' to avoid structures in the water.
'We have got very strong sandstone that anchors the bridge,' he said.
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