No, the ship didn’t steer towards the pylon: A brief fact check on the MV Dali collision with Baltimore’s Key Bridge

Early this morning, the cargo ship MV Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the bridge to collapse, sending several vehicles and people into the water. Search and rescue is currently underway.

Because Twitter is now a clearinghouse for the worst and most disingenuous hacks on the web, there’s of course a rumor spreading that the ship intentionally steered into the pylon. The perspective of the video does create the illusion that the ship turns sharply before impact, but that is an artifact of the angle the video was shot from and the sheer scale of the collision.

Ship tracks are public data and the Marine AIS tracks for the MV Dali are available. There is no sharp turn towards the pylon. The few minutes between the power failure and the collision as the crew desperately tries to arrest an out of control vessel must have been terrifying.

Sal Mercogliano from What is Going on With Shipping? has an excellent explainer syncing up the ship tracks with the video itself.