Federal prosecutors in Maryland reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Karthikeyan Deenadayalan, chief engineer of the containership Dali, who admitted that he knew the vessel was operating with an unsafe fuel supply arrangement before its March 2024 strike on Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge. The U.S. Attorney's Office said it is the first admission of criminal wrongdoing by an individual directly involved in operating the ship at the center of one of the worst maritime disasters in recent American history.
Deenadayalan admitted the Dali and two sister ships, the Maersk Saltoro and the Cezanne, used a flushing pump in their fuel supply that was not designed to automatically restart after a blackout. He understood the lack of redundancy posed a hazard to navigation and could endanger bridges and shore facilities, but did not report the condition to the U.S. Coast Guard as required by the Ports and Waterways Safety Act.
The filing also describes communications with Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, a Synergy technical superintendent indicted in May alongside Synergy Marine Pte Ltd of Singapore and Synergy Maritime Pvt Ltd of Chennai. Deenadayalan said Nair directed him to send a convincing email to the charterer about the Dali's fuel consumption so that the use of the flushing pump would not draw attention.
The Dali lost power twice within four minutes departing Baltimore Harbor on March 26, 2024, and struck the bridge, killing six construction workers, closing the Port of Baltimore for weeks, and causing an estimated $5 billion in economic damage. The National Transportation Safety Board traced the first blackout to an improperly secured signal wire in a high voltage switchboard, while shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries alleges the vessel's operators replaced automatic fuel pumps with a flushing pump that lacked redundancy after delivery, undermining the ship's built in safety margins.
The deferred prosecution agreement lets prosecutors suspend the case against Deenadayalan if he complies with its terms. The broader criminal case against the two Synergy companies and Nair remains pending and is being investigated by the FBI, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division.