Retired river pilot, Coast Guard know Baltimore-like bridge disaster could happen on the Mississippi [Video]

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Retired river pilot Mark Grusich said he sat stunned Tuesday (March 26), watching video showing a powerless container ship slam into a pier of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the span’s catastrophic collapse.

“(I had) a lump in my throat, because I feel for those (pilots),” Grusich said. “It could happen to any pilot, any day, any moment. The pilot’s just along for the ride at that point.”

The veteran mariner, along with rescuers from the United States Coast Guard, acknowledged that such a disaster could happen anywhere that massive ships and critical bridges might intersect, including New Orleans or many other spots along the Mississippi River.

Grusich described what likely happened in the moments leading up to the Baltimore bridge collision.

“The engineers and the people working in the engine room, they’re basically in a cave,” he said. “They have no idea where they …