In 48 U.S. states, it is illegal to text and drive a car. An airline pilot can’t use a cellphone for personal reasons while flying a plane. But there is no policy forbidding such a practice when it comes to guiding 1,100-foot ships through the narrow channels of Maryland waters. That could change soon. In March, the Ever Forward, a container ship as long as three football fields and weighing about 130,000 tons (for comparison, the average car weighs about 2), steamed out of one of those channels into the shallows of the Chesapeake Bay, getting stuck for more than a month.
Maryland Board of Pilots to consider cellphone policy after phone usage contributed to grounding of Ever Forward in March
December 23, 2022