28-3-2024 (BALTIMORE) Divers on March 27 recovered the remains of two of the six missing workers who were tossed into Baltimore Harbour after a massive cargo freighter rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing a large section of the critical highway artery to collapse into the shipping lanes below.
The bodies were pulled from the Patapsco River, a day after the colossal container ship lost power and its ability to maneuver before plowing into a support pylon of the bridge, knocking most of it into the water. A Maryland State Police official revealed that the truck containing the bodies of the two men was found in about 25 feet of water near the mid-section of the fallen bridge. However, further efforts to recover remains were suspended due to increasingly treacherous conditions.
Tragically, four more workers who were part of a crew filling potholes on the bridge’s road surface at the time of the incident remain missing and were declared presumed dead on the night of March 26, 18 hours after the catastrophic crash.
The collapse of the bridge, a major highway artery across the harbour, forced an indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the US Eastern Seaboard, handling more automobile and farm equipment freight than any other American port.
Earlier in the day, federal investigators examined the cargo ship while emergency teams searched for bodies and details emerged of the intense efforts to save lives in the minutes before the steel span collapsed.
Chilling audio footage from police radio minutes before the 1:30 am crash on March 26 captured the unfolding chaos, with one voice warning, “Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge. There’s a ship approaching that just lost their steering.” As voices discussed alerting any work crews to leave the bridge, another voice broke through, exclaiming, “The whole bridge just fell down!” The recording, carried by Broadcastify, an open-source audio streaming service, offered a glimpse into how authorities scrambled before the crash sent six bridge repair workers on the night shift to their deaths in the frigid black waters.
The Singapore-flagged Dali, a container ship the length of three football fields, had reported a loss of power before impact and dropped anchor to slow the vessel, giving authorities barely enough time to halt traffic on the bridge and likely prevent greater loss of life.
The disaster created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the densely populated region, with the bridge collapse potentially costing insurers billions of dollars in claims. One analyst estimated the cost could reach as much as US$4 billion (S$5.39 billion), which would make the tragedy a record shipping insurance loss.
Investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recovered the data recorder after boarding the ship late on March 26 and returned the following day to interview the ship’s crew, other survivors, and emergency responders, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.
Rescuers pulled two workers from the water alive on March 26, and one was hospitalised. The six workers who had been presumed dead included immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, officials said.
As the investigation intensifies, the focus remains on restoring the waterway for shipping, stabilising the vessel, and extricating it, according to Vice-Admiral Peter Gautier of the US Coast Guard. Addressing the ship’s safety record, Vice-Adm Gautier said it had a “fairly good safety record” and that there was no immediate threat to the public from the hazardous materials on board.
Data from the ship will provide investigators with a timeline of what happened, Homendy told reporters, as the NTSB prepared to examine whether contaminated fuel played a role in the ship’s power loss.
While economists and logistics experts doubt the port closure will unleash a major US supply chain crisis or significant price spike in goods due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs, the loss of the bridge has snarled roadways across Baltimore, forcing drivers onto two other congested harbour crossings and complicating daily commutes and regional traffic detours for months or even years to come.
