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The search for six missing men, all construction workers who fell from the Patapsco River, following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has been called off.
Coast Guard rear admiral Shannon Gilreath said there was no hope of finding the missing men alive due to the frigid water and the length of time elapsed since the accident.
The collapse occurred after a ship collided around with the bridge around 1am on Tuesday, in Baltimore, Maryland. Two people were rescued from the water, with one in critical condition and the other rejecting medical attention. Officials said eight men were originally unaccounted for.
“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search the extensive search efforts that have gone into it, the water temperature, at this point we do not believe we are going to find these individuals alive,” the official said.
“The coast guard’s not going away, none of our partners are going away, but we’re just going to transition into a different phase.”
The cargo-carrying vessel, called the Dali, crashed into a pillar of the bridge approximately 30 minutes after setting sail on its 27-day journey to Sri Lanka.
Maryland Transportation Authority advises drivers to use alternate routes in wake of bridge collapse
About 30,000 cars crossed the Francis Scott Key bridge every day. Now, the state transportation authority is urging commuters to use alternate routes.
Drivers are being told to avoid the I-695 southeast corridor. The I-695 outer loop is closed at MD 10 (exit 2), the agency said. The inner loop is closed at MD 157 Peninsula Exp (exit 43). Drivers should use I-95 or I-895 alternate routes.
Any additional updates will be posted here.
Over 1,000 US army engineers pressed into action
More than 1,000 members of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have been pressed into action to assist in the aftermath of the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The USACE yesterday said the team included engineering, construction, contracting and operations specialists, who would work with local, state and federal agencies to remove the fallen bridge to clear the shipping channel.
“Our emergency managers are closely monitoring the incident and coordinating with partner agencies for any potential support requests,” it said.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser reportedly deleted her response to the news about the collapse
Why did the Baltimore bridge collapse so quickly?
A huge shipping vessel that collided with a major bridge in Baltimore has left numerous people missing and could cause significant economic and social disruption, experts say.
Many questions remain about the collision, including why the ship hit with the bridge in the first place. But many of them are structural: how was the ship able to reach the bridge, why was it not protected against such collisions, and why the bridge collapsed so quickly once the collision had happened.
Experts say it may be too early to say exactly what happened during the collision and the collapse that resulted. But they caution that bridges of this kind are specifically built with protections against such crashes – and that it may have required a huge impact to make the bridge fall in this way.
Andrew Griffin has more.
Live: View of Baltimore bridge wreckage after cargo ship collision as search for six called off
Key Bridge collapse ‘something out of an action movie’, says Baltimore’s mayor
Cargo vessel was also involved in 2016 Belgium accident
The container vessel Dali was previously involved in another incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.
An inspection in 2023 carried out in Chile found “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website.
However, Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority said the vessel passed two separate foreign port inspections in June and September 2023.
It said a faulty fuel pressure gauge was rectified before the vessel departed the port following its June 2023 inspection.
In Pics: Part of bridge sitting on top of container ship
Part of the steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on top of the container ship Dali after the bridge collapsed in Baltimore
The collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is shown after being struck by a cargo ship
The Dali’s journey before Baltimore Key Bridge collapse
A container ship was only minutes into its planned 27-day journey when it rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday morning, sending the bridge and several people into the Patapsco River.
The Singaporean ship called the Dali was docked in Baltimore on Saturday in preparation for its trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka, according to Vessel Finder.
Carrying Maersk cargo, the nearly 1,000-foot-long (300 metre) container ship was expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on 22 April.
But around 1.30am ET on Tuesday, the ship hit the bridge causing it to collapse as construction workers were working on the bridge.
Ariana Baio reports:
Search for six presumed dead to resume Wednesday
Search divers will return to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the Baltimore bridge on Wednesday to look for the remains of the six workers presumed dead.
Maryland state police and the US 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 6am 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 said.
“We do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals alive,” Coast Guard rear admiral Shannon Gilreath added.
Rescuers pulled two other workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one of them was hospitalised.
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2024-03-27 09:00:00Z
CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmluZGVwZW5kZW50LmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQvYW1lcmljYXMvYmFsdGltb3JlLWZyYW5jaXMtc2NvdHQta2V5LWJyaWRnZS1jb2xsYXBzZS1tYXJ5bGFuZC1iMjUxOTIyNS5odG1s0gEA
