Huge cargo ship loses power near NY bridge, incident reminiscent of what led to Baltimore collapse

NEW YORK -- Another massive container ship lost power near a bridge, in an incident reminiscent of what led to the Baltimore disaster last month.

Pictures posted online show the 89,000-ton, 1,100-foot-long vessel "APL Qingdao" anchored close to New York's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It's now on the way to completing its journey but this incident comes less than two weeks after the deadly bridge collapse in Baltimore.

The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the container ship "had experienced a loss of propulsion" Friday night as it traversed a waterway in New York Harbor.

Three tugboats were escorting the ship, which is standard procedure for large vessels heading out into the Atlantic. The tugboats were able to tow the ship until it regained propulsion.

Authorities noted that even if the ship had come close to the bridge, the design of the bridge -- with protective rock-islands built around its posts -- would likely have prevented the kind of March 26 catastrophe in Baltimore when a container ship lost power, hitting the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse and kill six construction workers who fell with the span.

Salvage crews have started removing the hundreds of shipping containers on board the Dali and on Friday, divers located the body of one of the four remaining construction workers.

The incident in Baltimore -- and the one in New York -- serve as reminders for bridge officials nationwide to be on alert.

"Now is the time to go out and rethink what you have and make sure that all the inspections and all the studies have been made for the individual bridges themselves," said retired bridge engineer Andy Herrmann.

As for the ship that lost power in New York, after being repaired, it was allowed to continue on its journey and is now headed to Norfolk, Virginia.