By LEA SKENE and BRIAN WITTE (Associated Press)
Investigators in Baltimore started gathering evidence on Wednesday from the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and caused it to collapse. Below in the water, divers looked for six construction workers who fell into the harbor.
The investigation is moving fast while the Baltimore area deals with the sudden loss of a major transportation link that's part of the city's highway loop. The disaster also shut down the city's important shipping port.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board boarded the ship to gather information from its electronics and paperwork, according to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.
The agency is also examining the voyage data recorder found by the Coast Guard to create a timeline of events leading to the crash, which federal and state officials have said seemed to be an accident.
The ship's crew made 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 went into the water. Two were saved, but the other six, part of a construction crew working on the bridge, were missing and believed to be dead.
Debris made the search more difficult, according to a Homeland Security memo described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the document or the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stated that the divers encountered dangerous 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 people from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, as reported by diplomats from those countries.
One worker, a 38-year-old man from Honduras who came to the U.S. nearly two decades ago, was described by his brother as entrepreneurial and hard-working. He started last fall with the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge.
Capt. Michael Burns Jr. of the Maritime Center for Responsible Energy mentioned that maneuvering a ship in and out of ports with limited space is one of the most technically challenging and demanding tasks.
A loss of power in restricted waters is incredibly frightening, as mentioned by Capt. Michael Burns Jr. When a ship loses its ability to move and steer, it becomes vulnerable to the wind and current.
A video showed the ship heading toward the 1.6-mile bridge at a speed of approximately 9 mph, according to Maryland’s governor. Some vehicles managed to cross the bridge just seconds before the crash, which caused the span to break and fall into the water almost instantly.
The ship's last-minute warning allowed the police to stop traffic on the interstate highway. An officer parked sideways across the lanes and intended to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew once another officer arrived. However, he didn't get the chance as the ship, which had no power, crashed into the bridge.
Attention also shifted to the container ship Dali and its history.
Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, stated that the impact occurred while it was under the supervision of one or more pilots, who are local experts that assist in guiding vessels safely in and out of ports.
The ship, which was traveling from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and Danish shipping giant Maersk stated that it had chartered the vessel.
The ship 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 left the port, according to Singapore’s port authority in a statement on Wednesday.
The ship was sailing under a Singapore flag, and officials there stated that they will conduct their own investigation in addition to supporting U.S. authorities.
The sudden closure of a highway that carries 30,000 vehicles daily, and the disruption of a crucial shipping port, will impact not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters but also U.S. consumers who are likely to experience shipping delays.
“A lot of people don’t realize how important the port is to everything,” said Cat Watson, who crosses the bridge daily to work and lives close enough that she was woken up 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, as well as coal and farm equipment.
Ship traffic entering and leaving the port has been suspended indefinitely. Windward Maritime, a maritime risk-management company, reported a significant increase in ships waiting for a port to go to, with some anchored outside Baltimore or nearby Annapolis.
During a White House news conference, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned that the Biden administration was focused on reopening the port and rebuilding the bridge, but he refrained from providing a timeline for these efforts. He noted that the original bridge took five years to complete.
Another focus is addressing shipping issues, and Buttigieg planned to meet on 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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