By LEA SKENE and BRIAN WITTE (Associated Press)
BALTIMORE (AP) — Investigators started gathering proof on Wednesday from the cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and caused it to collapse. Underwater, divers searched through twisted metal for six construction workers who fell into the harbor and were feared dead.
The investigation gained momentum as the Baltimore region dealt with the sudden loss of a major transportation link that is part of the highway loop around the city. The disaster also shut down the port that is crucial to the city’s shipping industry.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board boarded the ship and planned to retrieve information from its electronics and paperwork, according to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.
The agency is also examining the voyage data recorder recovered by the Coast Guard and creating a timeline of events leading up to the crash, which federal and state officials have indicated was an accident.
The ship’s crew issued a distress call early Tuesday, reporting that they had lost power and the vessel’s steering system just minutes before hitting one of the bridge’s columns.
At least eight people ended up in the water. Two were saved, but the other six — part of a construction crew working on the bridge — were missing and presumed dead.
The debris complicated the search, as stated in a Homeland Security memo described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to discuss the document or the investigation.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore mentioned that the divers faced perilous conditions.
“They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them. They are trying to navigate mangled metal, and they’re also in a place it is now presumed that people have lost their lives,” he said Wednesday.
Among the missing were individuals from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries.
One worker, a 38-year-old man from Honduras who came to the U.S. almost twenty years ago, was described by his brother as enterprising and hard-working. He began working last fall with the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge.
Capt. Michael Burns Jr. of the Maritime Center for Responsible Energy stated that maneuvering a ship into or out of ports with limited space is “one of the most technically challenging and demanding things that we do.”
There are “few things that are scarier than a loss of power in restricted waters,” he said. And when a ship loses propulsion and steering, “then it’s really at the mercy of the wind and the current.”
Video showed the ship moving at what Maryland’s governor said was about 9 mph (15 kph) toward the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) bridge. Traffic was still moving across the span, and some vehicles appeared to escape with only seconds to spare. The crash caused the span to break and fall into the water within seconds.
The ship's last-minute warning allowed police to stop traffic on the interstate highway. One officer parked across the lanes and planned to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew once another officer arrived. But he did not get the chance as the powerless vessel crashed into the bridge.
Attention also shifted to the container ship Dali and its history.
Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, stated the impact occurred while it was under the control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely in and out of ports.
The ship, which was bound from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.
The vessel passed foreign port state inspections in June and September 2023. In the June 2023 inspection, a faulty monitor gauge for fuel pressure was fixed before the vessel departed the port, Singapore’s port authority said in a statement Wednesday.
The ship was traveling under a Singapore flag, and officials there said they will be conducting their own investigation in addition to supporting U.S. authorities.
The abrupt loss of a highway that carries 30,000 vehicles a day, and the disruption of a pivotal shipping port, will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters but also U.S. consumers who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays.
“Many people don’t realize how crucial the port is to everything,” said Cat Watson, who takes the bridge to work every day and lives close enough that she was awakened by the collision. “We’re going to be feeling it for a very long time.”
The Port of Baltimore is a busy entry point along the East Coast for new vehicles made in Germany, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom, along with coal and farm equipment.
Ship traffic entering and leaving the port has been suspended indefinitely.
Speaking at a White House news conference, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Biden administration was focused on reopening the port and rebuilding the bridge, but he avoided putting a timeline on those efforts. He noted that the original bridge took five years to complete.
Another priority is dealing with shipping issues, and Buttigieg planned to meet Thursday with supply chain officials.
From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
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