Harbor pilot Brett Baker commends Sears for avoiding a potential disaster.
“[It] could have been pretty terrible, but Ken did a great job,” Baker said.
The Tyndall went under the Skyway Bridge before getting to Tampa. In 1980, a ship hit the bridge, causing it to collapse.
More recently, a cargo ship crashed into the Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland.
Powerless cargo ships have led to fatal and costly wrecks.
But how common is it for these massive ships to lose power?
“It’s, you know, luckily, it’s not very common. But ships lose power. It’s a mechanical system, you know, I’m sure the crew did a great job maintaining it, but accidents happen and systems fail,” Baker said. “The state, you know, licenses us and regulates us to make sure that there’s someone here to prevent these types of potential disasters.”
Baker said had this gone wrong, people’s lives could’ve been endangered as well as the economy, as 45% of the states fuel comes through this bay.
Sears said they are trained for moments like this.
“Only when there’s a disaster are we really reminded of what is at stake, and an event like this morning shows that it can happen and still end all right,” Sears said.
Tampa Port officials said the mechanical failure was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard. They will determine if the ship is safe to depart from the port again.
