Did I read that right?
There is a topic on the main page about an explosion on a coal ship leaving Baltimore by John Konrad.
Apparently having a VTS was discussed in the wake of the Dali Accident.
Can someone explain the benefits of not having a VTS
What would VTS have done for either of those scenarios? It wouldn’t have kept the Dali from losing power or the Sapphire from exploding?
Don’t think you read the question properly.
What are the benefits of NOT having a VTS?
Edit for bad grammar
I understood the question, I guess maybe not the context.
Are you advocating for it? I guess I don’t see a reason not to have it other than whatever it costs, but when it was posed regarding the Dali, the context was always along the lines of “omg they don’t even have a VTS!” I guess yeah, there’s isn’t necessarily a benefit of NOT having one, but I don’t see how having a VTS would’ve done anything in mitigating either situation.
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No I have to agree that having a VTS would not have prevented either accident .
And
I always understood that when things get tight VTS goes silent as it should so as not to distract the warm body that is trying to deal with it.
I have found though that someone having an oversight of the entire picture has been a great help. Not so much in latter years when all pilots carried an iPad with a navigation function on it, but certainly in the earlier days.
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Hard to miss something you never had I guess? The pilots here do a good job organizing between themselves, one could say they are their own VTS. The channels are linear and only go a couple of directions, in and out of the Patapsco, then turn north or south. It is nothing like the English Channel or even New York with ships converging from different directions going various places.
I can’t ever recall an incident between two ships under pilotage here, the vessels they get in conflict with usually would think VTS is an old kind of video tape player or something.
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Baltimore is not so busy a port that the MD Pilots cannot handle traffic.
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Agreed. I’m not sure how VTS would have prevented either accident.
Would Johnny K be calling for a VTS if this coal ship had been leaving Norfolk? It seems an unfortunate coincidence that both these incidents happened in Baltimore.
This is the 2nd ship to have had a coal explosion out of Baltimore, and from what I understand a few other ships have stopped loading because they detected high gas levels.
I suppose I was simply shocked that in a First World Country you don’t have VTS in your ports.
I have had a bit more time to think about it and no VTS would not have saved The Dali hitting the bridge.
BUT
If I have got this correct
The Trainee Pilot called pilot dispatch who then got in touch with traffic management for the bridge. The main pilot was trying to call back the tugs.
From the transcript the Captain was trying to get the crew to drop the anchors and I would expect trying to find out WTF is going on and I would also expect having fairly breathless conversations with the pilot. It all gets a bit fraught when things go toes up on the bridge of a ship.It does seem to me , again from the transcript, that the main pilot was trying to maintain an air of calm which is exactly what is needed.
I speak from experience of things going toes up, thankfully nowhere near as bad as this.
The only example I can give was of a blackout on a ship not much smaller than Dali that was traveling at 17+ knots. When the emergency generator started I do not know what is going to come back on and thankfully the steering did so we are least had control as we slowed down, I also got the helmsman to steer on a point of land as I didn’t know what effect it would have on the gyro.
One call to VTS and I had no more worries about traffic, tugs were scrambled and authorised to break the speed limits and an alternative berth was arranged as we were not going to make ours due to a falling tide now.
As the tugs were approaching and we were starting an approach to a berth there was a medical emergency on board and once again one call to VTS and emergency services were dispatched.
Would this have helped Dali ? I don’t know but it would be sure a help to the Pilot
There is a traffic control system shared by Maryland and Virginia Pilots, the control towers at Cape Henry. Lots of traffic and it’s a junction several channels. Baltimore inner harbor and commercial terminals don’t have a lot of traffic and more important no crossing channels. Of course docking undocking needs to be managed but there is one pilot association handling all ships they manage the traffic. That leaves tug and barge movements, not a lot, all US flag majority with local experience
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