Emergency services were responding to a high alert call from the ship Dali. The alert that the ship gave when it lost propulsion and became adrift allowed traffic to be cut off.
“The entire bridge just collapsed. Start, start whoever... everyone. The whole bridge just fell,” a person is heard on the radio, clearly upset. The ship was moving at a speed of about eight knots (about 15 kilometers per hour) The ship changed direction at around 1:27 a.m. and headed directly toward the pillar.