Hazardous Materials Breach at Scene: NTSB Official
By Nathan Worcester
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homend, in a Wednesday evening press conference in the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, said there were 56 containers with 764 tons of hazardous materials in DALI’s cargo—“mostly corrosives, flammables, and miscellaneous hazardous materials.”
The miscellaneous materials include lithium-ion batteries, according to the NTSB chair.
“Some of the hazmat containers were breached. We have seen [sheen] on the waterway,” said Ms. Homendy. She added that other authorities “are aware of that, and… will be in charge of addressing those issues.”
“I did see some containers in the water and some breached significantly on the vessel itself. I don’t have an exact number,” the NTSB chair said when pressed on the scale of the breach. She suggested the number would be specified in a preliminary report from the independent agency in the next two to four weeks.
Ms. Homendy told reporters she could not provide a timeline on when the materials would be extracted, referring a reporter to unspecified “federal, state and local authorities.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the Maryland Transportation Authority for details on the materials and whether there is a timeline for their removal.
Efforts Shift From Recovery to Salvage in Effort to Quickly Reopen Port of Baltimore
By Lawrence Wilson
Authorities have suspended efforts to recover victims of the bridge collapse at the Port of Baltimore and are beginning to clear debris so as to reopen the busy commercial waterway as quickly as possible.
The bodies of two men were recovered at about 10 a.m. on March 27, but the volume of tangled steel and pavement below the surface of the Patapsco River made further search and retrieval impossible.
“We have exhausted all search efforts in the areas around this wreckage,” Col. Roland Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland State Police, told reporters on March 27.
“Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the [remaining] vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we, tragically, saw come down. At this point, this moves to a salvage recovery effort,” Col. Butler said.
The U.S. Coast Guard has created a unified command comprising federal, state, and local authorities to oversee the effort to clear the debris, a portion of which remains atop the cargo ship Dali, which rammed a bridge support causing the collapse on March 26.
“Our No. 1 priority is to reopen the waterway so that we can safely move commerce in and out of the Port of Baltimore,” Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath, commander of the Fifth Coast Guard District, told reporters. “We’re going to do that as soon as possible and as safely as possible,” he said but did not indicate a timeline.
Maryland has applied to the federal government for emergency funds to begin the process of rebuilding, according to state Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld.
“I just got off a phone call with the federal highway administrator on a step of the process that we’re moving forward. We intend to receive some additional federal dollars very quickly to start that process,” Mr. Wiedefeld said.
“And then we will come up with a design for the replacement of that bridge.”
Officials have declined to speculate on the length of time it will take to clear the debris and rebuild the bridge. However, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg have urged patience, saying it will be a “long road.”
The cost of clearing the waterway will be borne by the Army Corps of Engineers, according to Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-Md.), who praised President Joe Biden for his commitment to “move heaven and earth” to restore the vital transportation artery.
The bridge carried some 30,000 vehicles a day along Interstate 695, and the port processed more than 1 million shipping containers last year carrying goods worth some $80 billion. Some 8,000 employees gain their livelihood from the port.
“[President Biden] has ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to do everything necessary to clear the channel so that we can reopen those shipping lanes,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “The Army Corps of Engineers and the federal government will pick up the costs for that,” he added.
Preliminary estimates place the cost between $40 million and $50 million, Mr. Van Hollen said.
Echoing statements made earlier by Mr. Buttigieg, Mr. Van Hollen said efforts would be made to recoup costs from anyone found to be liable for damages.
“As the NTSB conducts its review, we’ll have a better idea of exactly what happened. If anybody is liable for negligence or wrongdoing, you can be assured that we will be pursuing those funds,” he said.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott urged citizens to practice patience and civility in what is likely to be a lengthy period of inconvenience.
“I’m asking for folks to have a little bit of decency and respect,” Mr. Scott said. “Don’t spread misinformation. Don’t play bridge engineer online or in the media.
“Remember that these are people’s family members who lost their lives simply trying to make transit better for the rest of us.”
2 Bodies Recovered From Submerged Vehicle
By Jackson Richman
A Maryland official announced that two bodies were found amid the search-and-recovery efforts following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Their families have been notified.
The official confirmed what State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told The Epoch Times earlier: The countries of origin of those presumed dead are Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
The bodies were found in a pickup truck approximately 25 feet below sea level in the area of the middle span of the bridge, said the official.
Maryland Takes First Steps to Access Federal Disaster Funding
By Austin Alonzo
Maryland has submitted an emergency federal relief funding request, according to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
In a March 27 interview with CNN, Mr. Buttigieg said receiving the request from Maryland’s state government is the first step toward applying federal funds for rebuild efforts.
In the same interview, Mr. Buttigieg said the Department of Transportation’s federal highways team is already working on design and procurement for a new span of Interstate 695 over the Patapsco River.
“My intention is to get this first request processed immediately and start those dollars flowing even in these earliest days,” he said. “We do have resources to get to work right away.”
Mr. Buttigieg went on to say the federal government and local law enforcement agencies are working to find out what, if any, liability a private party may have for the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster.
However, for now, the top priority is to get moving toward normalcy, he said.
Mayday Call Released
By Jackson Richman
Audio of the mayday call issued by the container ship’s crew to the Maryland Transportation Authority Police channel moments before it hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, has been released.
One man ordered for contractors working on the bridge’s deck to get off the bridge and for traffic on the bridge to cease.
Seconds later, another man panicked, “The whole bridge just fell down … the whole bridge just collapsed.”
A third person said there needs to be someone on the other side of the bridge to stop northbound traffic. A fourth person said he is “holding all traffic northbound.”
With Recovery Effort Underway, Feds Look to Reopen Baltimore Port
By Beth Brelje
Federal officials are not prepared to speculate on when the Port of Baltimore will be open again, but there is a financial urgency to open as soon as possible. The port is responsible for nearly $3.3 billion in personal wages and salaries, $2.6 billion in business revenue, and nearly $400 million in state and local tax revenue annually.
Access to the port was suddenly blocked March 26, when the container ship Dali, departing the port, struck a support tower of the Francis Scott Key Bridge around 1:30 a.m., causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River.
A total of eight contractors working on the bridge deck fell into the water; Two were rescued, and six are presumed dead. Their bodies have not been recovered.
The U.S. Coast Guard continued the effort March 27 to recover their remains.
“Even as families come to term with that grief and even as those recovery operations continue, work is underway to investigate what happened and to restore the key transportation resources that were impacted,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday in a White House briefing.
He noted there are two timelines: reopening the port, and rebuilding the bridge.
“Reopening the port is a different matter from rebuilding the bridge. The port, that’s just a matter of clearing the channel. Still no simple thing, but I would expect that can happen on a much quicker timeline than the full reconstruction of the bridge,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
When pressed for a timeline of days, weeks or months, he said he is asking those same questions and cannot say yet.
The Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard will take the lead on removing bridge debris from the channel.
President Joe Biden, Mr. Buttigieg and Army Corps of Engineers Lt. General Scott Spellmon had a phone
call Tuesday, while Mr. Spellmon was at the scene in Baltimore to assess the catastrophe. He managed the mobilizing of equipment, conducting analysis of underwater surveys, continued stabilizing the vessel, mitigating of the pollution threat, and removing the vessel from the area.
The vessel is stable, Mr. Buttigieg said, but it still has over 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil onboard, plus 4,700 cargo containers, including 56 with hazardous materials. Two containers are missing after going overboard. Those did not contain hazardous, he said.
The Port of Baltimore handles between $100 million and $200 million worth of cargo a day.
At the time of the incident, around 12 ships were in the Baltimore Harbor and remain stranded there, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said during the briefing. Their cargo may be off-loaded and put on trucks to be sent to the next destination.
Once the investigation into how the collapse happened is completed, any companies liable will be held financially responsible, Mr. Buttigieg said, but the president does not want to tie that funding to the timeline for restoration.
Merchant Shipping Is Safe Despite Baltimore Collision, Admiral Says
By Lawrence Wilson
Container shipping remains a generally safe mode of transportation despite the ship-bridge collision in Baltimore that caused the partial collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the loss of six lives, according to Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, the Coast Guard’s deputy commandant for operations.
“Despite what happened 36 hours ago in Baltimore, the maritime mode of transportation, merchant shipping, is an incredibly safe mode of transportation, not just here in the United States but worldwide,” Vice Adm. Gautier said in a White House media briefing on March 27.
Most ships bearing the flag of another nation adhere to global regulations that are negotiated through the International Maritime Organization in London, according to Vice Adm. Gautier.
The Dali, which struck the bridge in Baltimore, is registered in Singapore.
“I spoke with the administration in Singapore just a few hours ago,” Vice Adm. Gautier said. “They’ll be participating in the investigation”
The Coast Guard conducts “flag state examinations” to ensure that vessels not registered in the United States are vetted by the Coast Guard prior to entring a U.S. port. Vice Adm. Gautier described the vetting process.
Every ship approaching a U.S. port must report to the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection 96 hours before arrival. U.S. officials then put the vessel through a risk matrix that includes examination of the cargo, the vessel’s history, and the certifications and records of the cre members. Based on that assessment, the Coast Guard detemines whether or not to board the vessel for inspection before allowing it to enter the port.
“It’s a thorough process,” Vice Adm. Gautier said. “We do an inspection to assure that they meet the high international and domestic standards that we demand.”
The Dali, constructed in 2015, was involved in a previous, less serious, incident in Belgium in 2016 when it struck a stone wall at the Port of Antwerp, according to VesselFinder. That did not raise concern on entering the United States because the circumstances were much different, according to Vice Adm. Gautier.
“That was probably a different vessel crew, different pilots, different weather conditions,” he said. “Nevertheless, the Coast Guard keeps the safety histories of all the vessels that call into U.S. ports, and we’re reviewing that in terms of the investigation.”
Vice Adm: Public Safe Despite Hazardous Materials Aboard Crashed Ship
By Lawrence Wilson
The cargo ship that rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, causing the collapse of the structure and loss of six lives, is carrying 56 shipping containers bearing hazardous materials, according the the U.S. Coast Guard.
Two containers that do not contain hazardous materials were lost overboard as a result of the crash, according to Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, the Coast Guard’s deputy commandant for operations. Approximately 13 containers were collapsed or damage under the wreckage on the ship’s bow.
The 985-foot Singaporean-flagged vessel remains afloat though the bow rests of the riverbed, trapped beneath a portion of the collapsed bridge’s superstructure and pavement.
The ship carries some 4,700 shipping containers and a half million gallons of fuel oil and lube oil, Vice Adm. Gautier said during a White House media briefing on March 27.
The Coast Guard has examined the vessel manifest and analyzed the types of hazardous materials on board and determined that they present no danger, Vice Adm. Gautier said.
“There is no threat in the public from the hazardous materials on board,” Vice Adm. Gautier said. “We have air monitoring to detect if there is anything coming off of those containers,” he added. “And that we have not determined that there’s any kind of release at this time.”
Neither Vice Adm. Gautier nor U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who also briefed reporters, would speculate on how long it would take to remove debris from the ship and from the river passage so that the Port of Baltimore could be reopened.
Maryland Senator Calls for Reopening Port of Baltimore ‘Quickly as We Possibly Can’
By Jackson Richman
Appearing on CNN, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) called for the Port of Baltimore to reopen “quickly as we possibly can” following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Mr. Cardin lamented that the longer the port is closed, the bigger the loss of millions in commerce.
“It’s millions and millions of dollars lost to the local economy and affects not only our nation, but the global supply chain,” he said.
Mr. Cardin also noted that the longer the port is closed, the longer the workers there will not get paid.
An estimated $100 million to $200 million worth of materials pass through the Baltimore port every day, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
What We Know About the 6 Missing Men
By Austin Alonzo
Six construction workers are missing and presumed dead after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
On March 27, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told The Epoch Times at a briefing the men were from El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. This confirmed a statement issued earlier in the day by the Mexican Consulate in Washington.
Also today, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters two of the missing men are Mexican nationals. Three Mexicans fell into the Patapsco River in the early hours of March 26, and one was saved.
Mr. López Obrador said the families of the missing men asked for their names not be disclosed.
The Associated Press, on March 27, reported that two of the men were from Guatemala. The news agency also said one man, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, from Honduras, is among the missing.
In a statement published on its website, CASA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Hyattsville, Maryland, said Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, is also missing. Mr. Luna, according to the release, had been living in Maryland for 19 years.
“We discovered that one of the construction workers involved was a longtime member of our CASA family, adding an even deeper layer of sorrow to this already grievous situation,” CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres said in a statement.
All of the missing men were employed by Brawner Builders Inc., a contractor based in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
On March 27, the company published a statement on its website saying its crew was performing bridge maintenance work on the surface of the span of Interstate 695 when the Dali container ship struck one of the bridge’s supports.
“I … and other senior personnel have met with each and every family of our very valued and loved employees who have perished in this tragedy,” Jack Murphy, the owner of Brawner Builders, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this tragic event was completely unforeseen and was not something that we could imagine would happen.
“Our company is in mourning over the loss of these fine people. But of course, our sense of loss cannot in any way compare to what their families are feeling.”
Jeffrey Pritzker, Brawner’s executive vice president and general counsel, told The Epoch Times the company is choosing not to share the names of the missing men at this time.
The Brawner statement included a link to a GoFundMe account established by the Latino Racial Justice Circle on March 26. The account seeks to raise $60,000 for the missing men’s families.
“This is still a developing story, but we know that the six victims were all Latino immigrants who were supporting partners and children in the Southeast Baltimore and Dundalk communities,” the nonprofit organization said on its Facebook page.
Jackson Richman contributed to this report.
White House to Release Emergency Funding: Buttigieg
By Emel Akan
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, at a White House press briefing, said the Biden administration does not have a dollar estimate on the total cost to fund the bridge’s reconstruction, but there are provisions to release funding to start financing some of the costs through the the emergency relief accounts.
He said it was too soon to know about timeline to rebuild the bridge, but noted that the bridge took 5 years to construct.
Missing Bridge Contractor Crew From Latin American Countries: State Department
Individuals from El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras are members of the crew that was doing maintenance on the deck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told The Epoch Times.
The department’s Office of Foreign Missions is monitoring the situation and is in contact with the countries of origin of the contractors, said Mr. Miller.
Mr. Miller expressed the department’s “deepest condolences … to the families who may have lost a loved one.”
Buttigieg: Private Companies Will Be Held Accountable, But Rebuilding Must Begin Now
By Lawrence Wilson
Any private company found responsible for the ship-bridge collision in Baltimore will be held responsible, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN, but rebuilding will begin before any such determination is made.
“To be clear: if any private party is responsible and accountable for this, then they will be held accountable,” Mr. Buttigieg told the cable news network on March 27. “But we can’t wait for that to play out to get to work right now.”
Mr. Buttigieg and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore warned the public on March 26, the day of the crash, that rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge will be a “long road.”
In the meantime, both commuter traffic and the U.S. supply chain will be impacted.
“Not only do we need to get those ships in, there are some ships that are already in there that can’t get out. So, it’s very important to get that channel open,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
“The impact of this incident is going to be felt throughout the region and really throughout our supply chains.
“We’re talking about the biggest vehicle-handling port in the country that is now out of commission until that channel can be cleared—and a bridge that took five years to build.”
3 Mexican Nationals Fell Into Petapsco River, One Saved
By Austin Alonzo
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said two Mexican nationals are still missing after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26.
In a March 27 press conference, Mr. López Obrador said three Mexican citizens fell into the Patapsco River after the Dali, a cargo vessel, struck a bridge support in the early morning of March 26.
One of the workers was rescued, while two are still missing. He said the government would not be sharing further information about the worker’s names out of respect for the wishes of their families in Mexico.
Mr. López Obrador said the Mexican government is cooperating with Washington and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement as part of the investigation into the accident and its aftermath.
“We also know of other missing people, brothers from Central American countries,” Mr. López Obrador said.
Mr. López Obrador said these workers took on risky, overnight jobs as migrants typically do.
“They don’t deserve to be treated as they usually are by some irresponsible politicians with little sensitivity in the United States,” Mr. López Obrador told reporters.
NTSB Releases Drone Footage of Ship and Bridge at Collision Site
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released drone footage of the site where a cargo ship stuck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, causing the center sections of the structure to collapse and plunging people and vehicles into the Patapsco River.
The 7.5-minute silent video, posted to social media on March 27, shows aerial footage of the remaining bridge structure and portions of the collapsed superstructure, partly submerged in the river.
A portion of the collapsed steel gridwork and four lanes of highway pavement, approximately 50 feet in width, remain atop the bow of the Dali, the 985-foot Singaporean-flagged cargo vessel that struck a bridge support in the early morning hours of March 26, causing the suspension portion of the bridge to crumple and fall.
Damage is visible to the bow of the ship, which remains afloat. Several cargo containers have fallen and others crushed beneath the wreckage of the bridge. Most containers remain neatly stacked to a height of some 75 feet along the length and width of the undamaged portion of the ship.
The ship appears to be listing slightly to the left or port side.
Several small craft appear near the vessel.
No vehicles are visible in the wreckage.
The ship’s crew of 22, plus two local pilots, were unharmed in the incident. Two people were rescued from the water on March 26 with one refusing medical treatment and the other briefly hospitalized and released.
Six construction workers remain missing and are presumed dead.
Data Recorder Recovered From Dali
By Lawrence Wilson
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, reported that the data recorder from the ship that struck the Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge has been recovered, according to CNN.
“Some investigators boarded late last night to look at the engine room, the bridge, and gather any sort of electronics or documentation,” Ms. Homendy said on CNN News Central Wednesday.
“Right now, we do have the data record, which is essentially the ‘black box,’” she said. “We’ve sent that back to our lab to evaluate and begin to develop a timeline of events that led up to the strike on the bridge.”
The NTSB has deployed a team of 24 investigators who will board the ship again on March 27 to collect “perishable evidence,” including photographs, CNN reported.
The Epoch Times has requested further information from the NTSB.
NTSB to Probe Theory ‘Dirty Fuel’ Led to Dali Power Loss
By John Haughey
When National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators board the Dali today, one of the things they will be looking for is evidence to confirm or deny reports that contaminated fuel may have caused the 95,000-ton ship loaded with 262,000 tons of cargo to crash into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
“We’ve heard the reports,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told ABC News as the sun rose over lower Baltimore Harbor. “That’s way too early for us.
“We have a lot of information that we are gathering, collecting, that we’ll have to go through. We’ll certainly look at that as part of our investigation.”
Baltimore-Bound Cruise Ship Will Dock in Norfolk
By Beth Brelje
Carnival Cruise Line, which used the Baltimore Harbor, will temporarily move Carnival Legend’s Baltimore operations to Norfolk, Virginia, while search efforts continue following the collapse of the Key Bridge.
The company said in a statement that the ship Carnival Legend is scheduled to return from its current voyage on March 31. It will now return to Norfolk and guests will be provided complimentary bus service back to Baltimore.
Carnival Legend’s next seven-day itinerary on March 31 will then operate from and return to Norfolk. Guests on the current and upcoming cruises are being informed of this change.
“Our thoughts remain with the impacted families and first responders in Baltimore,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We appreciate the pledge made by President Biden today to dedicate all available resources to reopen Baltimore Harbor to marine traffic as soon as possible.
“As those plans are finalized, we will update our future cruise guests on when we will return home to Baltimore, but in the meantime, we appreciate the quick response and support from officials in Norfolk.”
What We Know Wednesday Morning
By Beth Brelje
With six individuals missing and presumed dead, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for their bodies near the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on the evening of March 26.
It is suspected they are underwater, among the debris of the fallen structure.
Coast Guard officials told reporters the bodies had not yet been located, but they would do everything possible to bring closure to families.
The six missing men had been working on the bridge’s deck when it fell into the frigid water. Two other workers were rescued from the Patapsco River early on March 26.
The recovery is a dangerous operation, with changing currents, and sharp, possibly unstable debris that could cut an airline. The search was set to resume on March 27.
Overnight, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators boarded the Dali to interview the crew, get the ship’s data recorder, and learn what caused the vessel to run into the bridge support, causing the catastrophic collapse.
The incident halted shipping traffic into Baltimore Harbor and snarled traffic in greater Baltimore. The Key Bridge, as locals call it, was the safety route for vehicles carrying explosives that were not allowed in surrounding tunnels. Those vehicles face major detours.
Shipping companies have diverted cargo and cruise ships to other ports.
President Joe Biden asked Congress to fund the entire cost of reconstruction.
Maersk, a Danish shipping and logistics company, chartered the container vessel Dali, which is owned by the Singapore-based Grace Ocean and operated by Synergy Group.
Officials from the Singapore shipping company are expected to be in Baltimore on March 27.
Maryland Transportation Authority Maps Out Alternative Routes
By Jackson Richman
The Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X, formerly Twitter, alternative routes for commuters to take in the aftermath of the bridge collapse.
“Harbor Crossing alt routes are I-95 or I-895 tunnels. Vehicles transporting hazardous materials (includes propane over 10 lbs) are prohibited in tunnels and should use the western section of I-695 around tunnels,” posted MDTA.
Vehicles in excess of 13′ 6″ inches, in height, or 96″ (8 feet) in width are prohibited from using the I-895 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. I-95 Ft. McHenry Tunnel is Height—14’ 6” Width—11’ 0” continued MDTA.
Rescuers Lose Hope for More Survivors
Rescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the Coast Guard said, as efforts switched on Wednesday to looking for bodies of the missing and more answers to why a container ship smashed into the span.
Search divers were expected to return near dawn to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the bridge in Baltimore Harbor to search for six workers missing and now presumed dead.
The disaster has forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.
As the odds of their survival vanished, the search for the missing workers was suspended on Tuesday evening, 18 hours after they were thrown from the fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge into the frigid waters at the mouth of the Patapsco River.
“We do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals alive,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a briefing.
Maryland State Police and U.S. Coast Guard officials said diminished visibility and increasingly treacherous currents in the wreckage-strewn channel made continued search efforts on the river too risky to continue overnight.
Starting at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, “we’re hoping to put divers in the water and begin a more detailed search to do our very best to recover those six missing people,” state police Colonel Roland Butler told reporters late on Tuesday.
Rescuers pulled two other workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one of them was hospitalized. The six presumed to have perished included workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, according to the Mexican Consulate in Washington.
Officials said all eight were part of a work crew repairing potholes on Key Bridge’s road surface when the Singapore-flagged container vessel Dali, leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka, plowed into a support pylon of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m.
A trestled section of the 1.6-mile span almost immediately crumpled into the water, sending vehicles and workers into the river.
The 948-foot ship had reported a loss of propulsion shortly before impact and dropped anchor to slow the vessel, giving transportation authorities time to halt traffic on the bridge before the crash. That move likely prevented a higher death toll, authorities said.
It was unclear whether authorities also tried to alert the work crew ahead of the impact.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at a Tuesday news briefing that the bridge was up to code with no known structural issues. There was no evidence of foul play, officials said.
Reuters contributed to this report
6 Workers Presumed Dead
By Nathan Worcester
The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended active search and rescue Tuesday evening for the six individuals known to be missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell in Baltimore Harbor.
“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search, the extensive search efforts that we’ve put into it, the water temperature, that at this point, we do not believe we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” said Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath.
“The Coast Guard’s not going away, none of our partners are going away, but we’re just going to transition to a different phase,” he added.
Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr. of the Maryland State Police said efforts were transitioning from search and rescue to “a recovery operation.”
“The changing conditions out there have made it dangerous for the first responders–the divers in the water,” he said, saying that surface ships would remain in the area and that divers would resume a search at 6 A.M. the following morning.
A senior executive at the company that employed the construction workers who’ve been unaccounted for since a Baltimore bridge collapsed says six of the company’s workers are presumed dead, and one worker was hospitalized.
Brawner Builders Executive Vice President Jeffrey Pritzker says the crew was working in the middle of the bridge’s span when a cargo ship hit it early Tuesday and crumbled the bridge. He says the bodies of the workers have not yet been recovered but they are presumed to have died given the water’s depth and the amount of time that has passed since the collapse.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”
From The Epoch Times
