Probing the events leading up to last week’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, investigators started by focusing on the actions of one person who was aboard the ship that crashed into it: the pilot.
The Maryland pilot in control of the Dali had at least a decade of experience in his role, Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots Association, said last week. Investigators probing what led the 984-foot container ship to slam into the bridge early on March 26, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River, have not given any indication that the pilot acted improperly.
In fact, the pilot’s “experience shows, when you consider what he did” in the frenzied few minutes between the Dali’s apparent power failure and the cargo ship’s ultimate collision with the bridge, Diamond said.
The crews of cargo ships involved in international trade are required to be joined by a local bay pilot as they head up the Chesapeake Bay to the Port of Baltimore — a particularly long, and thus expensive, route for the shipping companies, which pay pilotage fees starting at just over $325 per hour for smaller ships.
The pilots serve as local guides to a ship’s crew, navigating the difficult quarters of local waters and communicating with authorities, as they are often the only native English speaker on board.
Before the Key Bridge collapsed last Tuesday and blocked the approach to the Baltimore Harbor, the 1.6-mile span served as the landmark where bay pilots would hop off and docking pilots, who bring ships through the narrowest parts of their routes to berth at a port, would hop on.
Both are elite seafaring jobs, requiring years of intense training and apprenticeship to learn every detail of local waterways and how to navigate them.
The job itself can be tricky, guiding massive cargo ships through channels just deep enough to accommodate them. Mistakes can lead to the ships being grounded or worse disasters. Storms and fog make it more difficult.
But the hard work pays off — with a waterfront view at work, as well as high compensation. Pilots for a port like Baltimore’s can expect yearly earnings starting at $175,000 a year, up to around $500,000 annually after several years of experience, said Kevin Calnan, an assistant professor of marine transportation at California State University Maritime Academy.
In Maryland, pilots ultimately make their earnings by dividing up what their association takes in pilotage fees, though that amount will likely start to drop with port traffic now cut off by the bridge wreckage.
All pilots in the state are members of the Association of Maryland Pilots, which has not commented publicly since last Tuesday beyond a brief statement that said the thoughts and prayers of its roughly 70 members are “with the families and friends who lost loved ones” in the collapse. The six construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge are either presumed or confirmed to be dead.
“Our thanks and deepest appreciation go to all of the first responders for their selfless efforts,” the AMP said.
Diamond, who has been in communication with the state pilots association, mentioned that the pilot steering the Dali did everything possible after the ship lost power. He instructed the ship to drop anchor, informed authorities, and directed the 248-million-pound vessel to be steered as much as its rudders could manage without a working engine. Diamond stated that these actions postponed the impending collision, providing authorities with enough warning to close bridge traffic and take action.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board later provided a preliminary report of the events leading up to the crash that aligned with Diamond’s account.
The lead investigator for the crash, Marcel Muise, stated last week that data retrieved from the Dali’s voyage data recorder indicated a power outage, capturing several audible alarms on the ship as the vessel’s sensor data went offline. The data recorder then continued to capture audio of the crucial moments after the ship presumably lost power. The pilot, who officials have not identified, could be heard issuing steering commands and rudder orders, reporting the power loss, instructing to drop an anchor, requesting tugboat assistance, and issuing a “mayday” signal that authorities have stated ultimately prevented more casualties.
The NTSB stated that there were then about 33 seconds of audio “consistent with” the ship hitting the bridge and the bridge collapsing over top of it. Six seconds later, the pilot reported to the U.S. Coast Guard that the bridge was down.
Diamond mentioned that the pilot controlling the Dali was accompanied by an apprentice, a mariner who has already completed a rigorous selection process but is in the midst of a five-year training period during which they must undergo hundreds, or thousands, of journeys in the Chesapeake Bay, the Baltimore Harbor, and the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.
To even be considered for pilot-in-training, the Maryland Department of Labor’s State Board of Pilots requires applicants to have a license to captain a ship of any size, which usually takes over a decade, from attending a four-year maritime institution through completing each step of the U.S. Coast Guard’s licensing process. A Maryland license requires a minimum of five years working as a licensed master or mate, with at least two years serving as captain of a harbor tugboat.
Mariners who are selected — only a few out of hundreds of qualified applicants reach the pilot-in-training stage — then undergo at least five more years working under the supervision of fully licensed pilots and additional training before they obtain their own full license. They must pass a Coast Guard test for their local area; in Maryland, that test involves creating nautical charts of the Chesapeake Bay from memory on a blank piece of paper.
“It’s quite intense,” Calnan, the professor, stated. “It takes years and years to prepare for that exam.”
Pilots continue their education after they obtain their full licenses, with most pilots associations sending their members to annual trainings.
However, despite the intense training, Maryland pilots are still being closely examined.
A Maryland pilot, Steven Germac, was suspended in 2022 and later voluntarily gave up his license forever after a U.S. Coast Guard report pointed to his “failure to maintain awareness of the situation and attention” as the cause of the Ever Forward container ship grounding. The pilot was using his mobile phone for almost half of the March 2022 journey that resulted in the ship being stuck off the coast of Anne Arundel County, according to the report. The ship was later refloated after numerous attempts to free it from the mud, where it remained stuck for 35 days.
A committee under the state’s Board of Pilots is legally responsible for reviewing complaints filed against pilots as well as “incidents” like the Ever Forward’s grounding or the Dali’s collision with the bridge, although they will likely wait for federal authorities to finish their investigation of the collapse.
