Washington:

Eight Indian crew members of the cargo ship ‘Dali’ that crashed into a famed Baltimore bridge in March left for India on Friday after nearly three months on the mammoth vessel.

According to Baltimore Maritime Exchange, four of the 21 crew members are still on board the 984-foot cargo ship MV Dali, which is tentatively scheduled to leave Friday evening for Norfolk, Virginia.

The rest of the crew has been moved to a service apartment in Baltimore and will remain there pending an investigation.

Notably, 20 of the crew members were Indian nationals. They were on board the MV Dali Cargo, which struck the pillars of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge resulting in its collapse and the death of six construction workers in the tragic incident.

Dali will undergo repair at Norfolk.

The departure of eight Indian crew members including a cook, a fitter and seamen follows a deal approved by the judge. None of these are officers. The rest 13 would remain in the US, mainly because of the pending investigations.

“They’re anxious, under considerable stress considering they don’t know the future. They don’t know when they’ll see their family again or how they’ll be treated here,” Rev. Joshua Messick, director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center and chaplain for the Port of Baltimore told CNN.

None of the crew members have been charged in connection with the disaster. FBI and other federal agencies are conducting the investigations.

The 2.6km-long, four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore, came crashing down after Dali collided against it on March 26.

The vessel is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd and was outbound from Baltimore to Colombo and has a capacity of 10,000 TEU, with onboard units totalling 4,679 TEU. The vessel’s deadweight is 116,851 DWT.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

A stranded cargo ship that has been blocking one of America’s busiest ports will be removed Monday nearly two months after it struck and destroyed a bridge in Baltimore, authorities said over the weekend.

The complex operation would see the nearly 1,000-foot (300-meter) Dali container vessel transported to a marine terminal, marking a major step in reopening the key shipping channel.

The Singapore-flagged ship lost power before it plowed into a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, causing it to collapse and killing six construction workers who had been atop the major transit route.

The accident shut down the port, though temporary channels have allowed some traffic in and out of Baltimore.

Authorities leading the salvage operation said the Dali would be prepared for refloating from midday (1600 GMT) Sunday ahead of being moved at high tide on Monday, forecast for 5:24 am.

Divers will first inspect the ship to ensure there are no obstructions after demolition experts last week used explosives to remove parts of the collapsed steel bridge trapping the Dali, which still has its 21-man crew onboard.

Salvagers will then draw out up to 1.25 million gallons (4.7 million liters) of water previously pumped into the Dali to stabilize it as ballast, before releasing its anchors and mooring lines.

Tugboats will transport the Dali at around 1 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour) to a nearby marine terminal, with the journey expected to take three hours.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore told NBC News on Sunday he was “proud that we’re on track and by the end of May we’ll have that federal channel reopened.”

Authorities have been working around the clock to clear the fallen bridge and reopen the waterway after it was rendered impassable due to the sprawling wreckage.

The port is a key hub for the auto industry, handling almost 850,000 autos and light trucks last year — more than any other US port, according to state figures.

In April the FBI launched a criminal probe into the incident, with its agents boarding the Dali as part of the investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is also investigating, said on Tuesday the ship had two electricity blackouts in the moments before the disaster.

It also said the crew had been tested multiple times, before and after the disaster, for drugs and alcohol, and that none had showed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The cargo ship Dali experienced electrical blackouts about 10 hours before leaving the Port of Baltimore and yet again shortly before it slammed into the Francis Key Bridge and killed six construction workers, federal investigators said on May 14, providing the most detailed account yet of the tragedy.

The first power outage occurred after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper while conducting maintenance, causing one of the ship’s diesel engines to stall, investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said in their preliminary report. Shortly after leaving Baltimore early on March 26, the ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns because another power outage caused it to lose steering and propulsion at the exact worst moment.

Why did the Baltimore bridge collapse and what do we know about the ship? | Explained

The report provides new details about how the ship’s crew addressed the power issues it experienced while still docked in Baltimore. A full investigation could take a year or more, according to the safety board.

Testing of the ship’s fuel did not reveal any concerns related to its quality, according to the report. The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, laden with shipping containers and enough supplies for a monthlong voyage.

After the initial blackout caused by the closed exhaust damper, investigators say a backup generator automatically came on. It continued to run for a short period — until insufficient fuel pressure caused it to kick off again, resulting in a second blackout. That’s when crew members made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching from one transformer and breaker system that had been in use for several months to another that was active upon its departure, according to the report.

Investigators stopped short of drawing a direct line between those earlier power issues and the blackout that ultimately caused the bridge collapse.

“The NTSB is still investigating the electrical configuration following the first in-port blackout and potential impacts on the events during the accident voyage,” investigators wrote.

The safety board launched its investigation almost immediately after the collapse, which sent six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths. Investigators boarded the ship to document the scene and collect evidence, including the vessel’s data recorder and information from its engine room, according to board chair Jennifer Homendy. Investigators also interviewed the captain and crew members.

“Our mission is to determine why something happened, how it happened and to prevent it from recurring,” Ms. Homendy said at a news conference days after the disaster.

The preliminary report details the chaotic moments prior to the bridge collapse while crew members scrambled to address a series of electrical failures that came in quick succession as disaster loomed.

At 1.25 a.m. on March 26, when the Dali was a little over half a mile away from the bridge, electrical breakers that fed most of the ship’s equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped, causing a power loss. The main propulsion diesel engine automatically shut down after its cooling pumps lost power, and the ship lost steering.

“Crew members were able to momentarily restore electricity by manually closing the tripped breakers,” the report says.

“Around that time, the ship’s pilots called for tugboats to come help guide the wayward vessel. The tugboats that guided it out of the port had peeled off earlier per normal practice,” according to the report. Crew members also started the process of dropping anchor and the pilots’ dispatcher called the Maryland Transportation Authority Police and relayed that the ship had lost power. The pilots’ dispatcher notified the Coast Guard.

“The ship was less than a quarter of a mile from the bridge when it experienced a second power blackout because of more tripped breakers,” according to the report. The crew again restored power, but it was too late to avoid striking the bridge.

“One of the pilots ordered the rudder turned at the last minute, but since the main engine remained shut down, there was no propulsion to assist with steering,” the report says. They also made a mayday call that allowed police to stop traffic to the bridge.

At 1.29 a.m., the 1.6-mile steel span came crashing down into the Patapsco River. The construction workers were sitting in their vehicles during a break when disaster struck. The last of the victims’ bodies was recovered last week.

One member of the seven-person roadwork crew survived the collapse by somehow freeing himself from his work truck. He was rescued from the water later that morning. A road maintenance inspector also survived by running to safety in the moments before the bridge fell.

On Monday, crews conducted a controlled demolition to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed bridge, which landed draped across the Dali’s bow, pinning the grounded ship amid the wreckage. The ship is expected to be refloated and guided back to the Port of Baltimore in the coming days.

It arrived in the U.S. from Singapore on March 19, a week before the crash, according to the report. It made stops in Newark, New Jersey, and Norfolk, Virginia, before coming to Baltimore. Investigators said they were not aware of any other power outages occurring in those ports.

They said they’re working with Hyundai, the manufacturer of the ship’s electrical system, to “identify the cause(s) of the breakers unexpectedly opening while approaching the Key Bridge and the subsequent blackouts.”

The board’s preliminary report released on Tuesday likely includes a fraction of the findings that will be presented in its final report, which is expected to take more than a year. The FBI has also launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.

Washington, United States:

The container ship that collided with a major bridge in Baltimore, collapsing it within seconds, suffered two electricity blackouts in the moments before the disaster, a preliminary report by federal investigators released Tuesday said.

The Singapore-flagged Dali also lost power during maintenance twice on the previous day, though the report by the National Transportation Safety Board said it was still probing what impact that may have had. 

It had been clear that the ship had lost power in the seconds before the stunning collapse.

But the report is the first detailed examination of the events leading up to the disaster, which killed six construction workers who were making repairs on the bridge, and blocked the busy Port of Baltimore, a key US hub. 

In a timeline of the accident, it said the Dali was just 0.6 miles from the bridge when the electrical breakers that fed most of the ship’s equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped, causing the first blackout.

The ship lost propulsion and steering and began to drift off course. The crew managed to restore power briefly, but with the Dali just 0.2 miles from the bridge the lights went out again.

An emergency generator gave the crew some steering and they made a hard turn to port — but without propulsion, the bridge’s fate was sealed. 

The report also detailed two blackouts about ten hours before leaving Baltimore.

“The first in-port blackout was caused by the mechanical blocking of the online generator’s exhaust gas stack. The second blackout in port was related to insufficient fuel pressure for the online generator,” it said.

It also said the crew had been tested multiple times, before and after the disaster, for drugs and alcohol, and that none had showed. 

In April, the FBI launched a criminal probe targeting the ship, with its agents boarding the Dali as part of the investigation.

President Joe Biden promised last month to “move heaven and earth” to rebuild the bridge, pledging federal funds and saying a new channel for shipping traffic would open by the end of May.

On Monday, crews demolished part of the bridge in a bid to free the Dali, which has been pinned beneath the wreckage since the collapse.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

The crew of 20 Indians and a Sri Lankan of the container vessel that collided with a key Baltimore bridge last week is “busy with their normal duties” and will remain on board until the investigation into the accident is completed.

“It is confirmed there are 21 crew members on board. The crew members are busy with their normal duties on the ship as well as assisting the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard investigators on board,” a spokesperson of Grace Ocean Pte and Synergy Marine told PTI.

The crew is on board the container vessel Dali that collided with the 2.6-km-long four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore in the early hours of March 26. The 984-foot cargo ship was bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.

On how long the crew would have to stay on board the ship, the spokesperson said, “At this time, we do not know how long the investigation process will take and until that process is complete, the crew will remain on board.” The Singapore-flagged Dali is owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd and managed by the Synergy Marine Group. Earlier, the non-profit organisation Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center had said that the Indian crew on board the container vessel was “healthy”.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi earlier said that there were 20 Indians on board Dali and the Indian embassy in Washington was in close touch with them and local authorities.

Last week, US authorities began interviewing personnel on board Dali. The Synergy Group had said in a statement that the NTSB boarded the vessel on Wednesday and collected documents, voyage data recorder extracts, and other evidence as part of their investigation.

Grace Ocean and Synergy has confirmed the safety of all crew members and two pilots aboard the vessel. They, however, reported one minor injury and said the injured crew member has been treated and discharged from a hospital.

Six people, who were part of a construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge when the collision occurred, are presumed dead. Divers recovered the bodies of two of the construction workers from a red pickup truck found submerged in the river and a search was on for the remaining four victims.

US President Joe Biden said that the crew on board Dali had alerted transportation personnel about losing control of the vessel, enabling authorities to close the Baltimore bridge to traffic before the devastating collision, “undoubtedly” saving lives. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The 20 Indian crew members of the ship that rammed a bridge in the US city of Baltimore are still on the vessel, answering officials and ensuring the ship’s daily routine work is done, the New York Times reported.

The crew members won’t be going anytime soon, until the mangled remains of the bridge have been cleared, NYT reported. They will in the meantime look after the ship.

The ship named Dali was going to Sri Lanka, carrying 4,700 containers, when it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge after losing power.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said one of the Indian crew members was taken to a Baltimore hospital where he received stitches. He has returned to the ship, the MEA has said.

It may take weeks to remove the debris, free the ship, and reopen the channel to one of the busiest ports in the US. On Saturday, the Governor of Maryland said officials planned to remove the first piece of the debris.

Chris James, the employee of a consulting firm that’s helping the ship’s management company, Synergy Marine, told NYT the crew members have ample supplies of food and water, enough fuel to keep the generators working.

But there is still no exact timeline for when the ship might be extracted from the wreckage, Mr James told NYT. Once the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Coast Guard finish their investigations, the crew may be swapped to be sent home, Mr James said in the NYT report.

The crew has received praise for sending SOS messages to the local authorities which allowed them to stop much of the traffic before the accident. Six people who were part of a construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge were killed when the structure collapsed.

“Our information is that there are 21 crew members, of which 20 are Indians. All of them are in good shape, good health. One of them got injured slightly, needed to have some stitches, and stitches have been given. And, he has gone back to the ship,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said in response to a query during his weekly media briefing in Delhi.

Sparks fly as workers start to remove a section of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Baltimore.
| Photo Credit: AP

Teams of engineers worked on March 30 on the intricate process of cutting and lifting the first section of twisted steel from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which crumpled into the Patapsco River this week after a massive cargo ship crashed into one of its supports.

Sparks could be seen flying from a section of bent and crumpled steel in the afternoon, and video released by officials in the evening showed demolition crews using a cutting torch to slice through the thick beams. The joint incident command said in a statement that the work was being done on the top of the north side of the collapsed structure.

Also read: Baltimore bridge crash | Embassy in close touch with Indians onboard ship in U.S., local authorities, says MEA

Crews were carefully measuring and cutting the steel from the broken bridge before attaching straps so it can be lifted onto a barge and floated away, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said.

Seven floating cranes — including a massive one capable of lifting 1,000 tons — 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats were on site in the water southeast of Baltimore.

Each movement affects what happens next and ultimately how long it will take to remove all the debris and reopen the ship channel and the blocked Port of Baltimore, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.

“I cannot stress enough how important today and the first movement of this bridge and of the wreckage is. This is going to be a remarkably complicated process,” Moore said.

Undeterred by the chilly morning weather, longtime Baltimore resident Randy Lichtenberg and others took cellphone photos or just quietly looked at the broken pieces of the bridge, which including its steel trusses weigh as much as 4,000 tons.

“I wouldn’t want to be in that water. It’s got to be cold. It’s a tough job,” Lichtenberg said from a spot on the river called Sparrows Point.

The shock of waking up Tuesday morning to video of what he called an iconic part of the Baltimore skyline falling into the water has given way to sadness.

“It never hits you that quickly. It’s just unbelievable,” Lichtenberg said.

One of the first goals for crews on the water is to get a smaller auxiliary ship channel open so tugboats and other small barges can move freely. Crews also want to stabilize the site so divers can resume searching for four missing workers who are presumed dead.

Two other workers were rescued from the water in the hours following the bridge collapse, and the bodies of two more were recovered from a pickup truck that fell and was submerged in the river. They had been filling potholes on the bridge and while police were able to stop vehicle traffic after the ship called in a mayday, they could not get to the construction workers, who were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The crew of the cargo ship Dali, which is managed by Synergy Marine Group, remained on board with the debris from the bridge around it, and were safe and were being interviewed. They are keeping the ship running as they will be needed to get it out of the channel once more debris has been removed.

The vessel is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and was chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk.

The collision and collapse appeared to be an accident that came after the ship lost power. Federal and state investigators are still trying to determine why.

Assuaging concern about possible pollution from the crash, Adam Ortiz, the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator, said there was no indication in the water of active releases from the ship or materials hazardous to human health.

Officials are also trying to figure out how to handle the economic impact of a closed port and the severing of a major highway link. The bridge was completed in 1977 and carried Interstate 695 around southeast Baltimore.

Maryland transportation officials are planning to rebuild the bridge, promising to consider innovative designs or building materials to hopefully shorten a project that could take years.

President Joe Biden’s administration has approved $60 million in immediate aid and promised the federal government will pay the full cost to rebuild.

Ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore remains suspended, but the Maryland Port Administration said trucks were still being processed at marine terminals.

The loss of a road that carried 30,000 vehicles a day and the port disruption will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters, but also U.S. consumers, who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays. The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other U.S. facility.

Divers recovered the remains of two of the six missing workers more than a day after a cargo ship smashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bodies of two men were found in a red pickup truck submerged in the icy waters of the Patapsco River. Rescuers pulled two workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one was hospitalized.

Six workers on the bridge are presumed dead. The two men whose bodies were recovered on Wednesday were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, originally from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of nearby Dundalk, originally from Guatemala.

The workers came from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to a press conference.

Authorities have suspended efforts to recover bodies in the 50-foot-deep (15 m) waters surrounding the twisted ruins due to treacherous conditions.

At the time of the crash, a construction crew was fixing potholes on the bridge and eight people fell 185 feet (56 m) into the river where water temperatures were 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius). Two workers were rescued, one unharmed and one injured.

Authorities saved lives by stopping vehicles from using the bridge after the ship sent out a mayday call.

The ship also dropped its anchors to slow down, buying time to clear the bridge.

When did the Baltimore bridge collapse?

Shortly after 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) on Tuesday, a container ship named the Dali was sailing down the Patapsco River on its way to Sri Lanka. At 1:24 a.m., it suffered a total power failure and all its lights went out.

Three minutes later, at 1:27 a.m., the container ship struck a pylon of the bridge, crumpling almost the entire structure into the water.

Less than a minute before impact, a first responder on emergency radio responded to the crew’s mayday call by sending officers to halt traffic onto the bridge.

Without their fast work, the scale of the disaster may have been far greater, even during the early morning hours when vehicular traffic is relatively light.

Tuesday’s disaster may be the worst U.S. bridge collapse since 2007, when a design error caused the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis to plunge into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.

Why did the bridge collapse?

Bridges such as the one in Baltimore are classified as “fracture critical” by the federal government – meaning that if one portion of the bridge collapses, the rest of the structure falls. There are more than 16,800 such spans in the U.S., according to the Federal Highway Administration.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said the bridge lacked structural engineering redundancies common to newer spans, making it more vulnerable to catastrophic collapse.

The Key Bridge opened in 1977 – three years before a similar vessel collision of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, Florida, killed 35 people, and prompted bridge designers to implement better protections for foundation piers.

Who will pay for the damage and how much will it cost?

President Joe Biden promised to visit Baltimore soon and said he wanted the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.

The Transportation Department on Thursday awarded $60 million in “quick release” emergency relief funds to aid in clearing debris and begin the process of rebuilding. To replace the bridge, Congress would need to approve funding. After the bridge collapse in 2007 in Minnesota, Congress allocated $250 million.

Initial estimates put the cost of rebuilding the bridge at $600 million, according to economic analysis company IMPLAN.

Federal officials have told Maryland lawmakers the final cost of rebuilding the bridge could soar to at least $2 billion, Roll Call reported, citing a source familiar with the discussions.

Insurers could face billions of dollars in claims, analysts said, with one putting the cost at as much as $4 billion, which would make the tragedy a record shipping insurance loss.

How long will it take to rebuild?

Rebuilding could be a lengthy process and will depend on whether any of the remaining structure can be salvaged. It took five years to construct the original bridge from 1972-1977.

The closure of the port for just one month would cost Maryland $28 million in lost business, according to IMPLAN.

What ship hit the Baltimore Bridge?

The Dali was leaving Baltimore en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, with 21 crew and two pilots on board.

The ship measures 948 feet (289 m) – as long as three football fields. It was stacked high with containers but was capable of carrying twice as much cargo. Safety investigators recovered the ship’s black box, which can give them the vessel’s position, speed, heading, radar, bridge audio, and radio communications as well as alarms.

The same ship was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, when it hit a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.

A later inspection in June 2023 carried out in San Antonio, Chile, found the vessel had “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.

The registered owner of the Singapore-flagged ship is Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, LSEG data show. Synergy Marine Group managed the ship, and Maersk chartered the vessel.

What do we know about the bridge that collapsed?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was one of three ways to cross the Baltimore Harbor and handled 31,000 cars per day or 11.3 million vehicles a year.

The steel structure was four lanes wide and rose 185 feet (56 m) above the river.    

It opened in 1977 and crosses the Patapsco River, where U.S. national anthem author Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1814 after witnessing the British defeat at the Battle of Baltimore and the British bombing of Fort McHenry.

How will the bridge collapse impact the Baltimore port?

Traffic was suspended at the port, the 17th largest in the country.

The flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports. However, there could be major disruptions in shipping cars, coal and sugar.

It is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling at least 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.

In 2023, the port was the second busiest for coal exports.

It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products such as sugar and salt.     

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard was being transported to Baltimore so crews on March 29 can begin removing the wreckage of a collapsed highway bridge that has halted a search for four workers still missing days after the disaster and blocked the city’s vital port from operating.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the crane, which was arriving by barge and can lift up to 1,000 tons, will be one of at least two used to clear the channel of the twisted metal and concrete remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and the cargo ship that hit it this week.

“The best minds in the world” are working on the plans for removal, Moore said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Baltimore District told the governor that it and the Navy were mobilizing major resources from around the country at record speed to clear the channel.

“This is not just about Maryland,” Mr. Moore said. “This is about the nation’s economy. The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in America.”

Mr. Moore warned of a “very long road ahead” to recover from the loss of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge as the Biden administration approved $60 million in immediate federal aid after the deadly collapse.

“Meanwhile the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was moving the largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard to help remove the wreckage of the bridge,” Mr. Moore said, so work to clear the channel and reopen the key shipping route can begin. The machine, which can lift up to 1,000 tonnes, was expected to arrive on Thursday evening, and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said a second crane with a 400-tonne capacity could arrive on Saturday.

“The State is “deeply grateful” for the federal funds and support,” Mr. Moore said at an evening news conference.

Mr. Moore promised on Thursday that “the best minds in the world” were working on plans to clear the debris, move the cargo ship that rammed into the bridge from the channel, recover the bodies of the four remaining workers presumed dead and investigate what went wrong.

“Government is working hand in hand with industry to investigate the area, including the wreck, and remove the ship,” said Mr. Moore, a Democrat, who said the quick aid is needed to “lay the foundation for a rapid recovery.” President Joe Biden has pledged the federal government would pay the full cost of rebuilding the bridge.

“This work is not going to take hours. This work is not going to take days. This work is not going to take weeks,” Mr. Moore said. “We have a very long road ahead of us.”

Van Hollen said 32 members of the Army Corps of Engineers are surveying the scene of the collapse and 38 Navy contractors are working on the salvage operation.

The devastation left behind after the powerless cargo ship struck a support pillar on Tuesday is extensive. Divers recovered the bodies of two men from a pickup truck in the Patapsco River near the bridge’s middle span on Wednesday, but officials said they have to start clearing the wreckage before anyone could reach the bodies of four other missing workers.

Crew of cargo ship that lost power and collided with bridge in Baltimore, U.S. are all Indian

State police have said that based on sonar scans, the vehicles appear to be encased in a “superstructure” of concrete and other debris.

National Transportation Safety Board officials boarded the ship, the Dali, to recover information from its electronics and paperwork and to interview the captain and crew members. Investigators shared a preliminary timeline of events before the crash, which federal and state officials have said appeared to be an accident.

“The best minds in the world are coming together to collect the information that we need to move forward with speed and safety in our response to this collapse,” Mr. Moore said on March 28.

Of the 21 crew members on the ship, 20 are from India, Randhir Jaiswal, the nation’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters. One was slightly injured and needed stitches, but “all are in good shape and good health,” Mr. Jaiswal said.

“The victims, who were part of a construction crew fixing potholes on the bridge, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,” he said. “At least eight people initially went into the water when the ship struck the bridge column, and two of them were rescued Tuesday,” officials said.

The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds. Authorities had just enough time to stop vehicle traffic, but didn’t get a chance to alert the construction crew.

During the Baltimore Orioles’ opening day game on Thursday, Sgt. Paul Pastorek, Cpl. Jeremy Herbert and Officer Garry Kirts of the Maryland Transportation Authority were honoured for their actions in halting bridge traffic and preventing further loss of life.

The three said in a statement that they were “proud to carry out our duties as officers of this state to save the lives that we could.”

The Dali, which is managed by Synergy Marine Group, was headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka. It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Limited and was chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk. Synergy extended sympathies to the victims’ families in a statement on Thursday.

“We deeply regret this incident and the problems it has caused for the people of Baltimore and the region’s economy that relies on this vitally important port,” Synergy said, noting that it would continue to cooperate with investigators.

Scott Cowan, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333, said the union is scrambling to help its roughly 2,400 members whose jobs are at risk of drying up until shipping can resume in the Port of Baltimore. “If there’s no ships, there’s no work,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can.”

“The huge vessel, nearly as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, was carrying nearly 4,700 shipping containers, 56 of them with hazardous materials inside. Fourteen of those were destroyed,” officials said. However, industrial hygienists who evaluated the contents identified them as perfumes and soaps, according to the Key Bridge Joint Information Center.

“There was no immediate threat to the environment,” the centre said. About 21 gallons (80 litres) of oil from a bow thruster on the ship is believed to have caused a sheen in the waterway, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said on Thursday.

Booms were placed to prevent any spreading, and state environmental officials were sampling the water. At the moment there are also cargo containers hanging dangerously off the side of the ship, Gilreath said, adding, “We’re trying to keep our first responders … as safe as possible.”

Divers sent to work beneath the bridge debris and container ship will encounter challenging conditions, including limited visibility and moving currents, according to officials and expert observers.

“Debris can be dangerous, especially when you can’t see what’s right in front of you,” said Donald Gibbons, an instructor with the Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Technical Centers.

The sudden loss of a highway that carries 30,000 vehicles a day and the port disruption will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters but also U.S. consumers, who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays.

The governors of New York and New Jersey offered to take on cargo shipments that have been disrupted, to try to minimise supply chain problems.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who met on Thursday with supply chain officials, has said the Biden administration was focussed on reopening the port and rebuilding the bridge, but he did not put a timeline on those efforts. 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.

A view of the vessel MV Dali under a collapsed portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, March 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The story so far: On March 26, a container vessel ran into the pillar of a bridge on the Patapsco River in Baltimore, bringing a part of the structure crashing down together with some people and cars on the bridge. By late March 27, the U.S. Coast Guard had concluded its search in the river for the bodies of the six people who fell. The vessel had an all-Indian crew.

What is the timeline of events?

After departing from the port of Baltimore at 12.28 am local time, the 300-metre-long vessel Dali was headed for Colombo, Sri Lanka, with several containers of oil and some hazardous material. Less than an hour after its departure, people nearby reported the Dali’s lights flickering. Two minutes later, the ship’s course also started to angle towards two of the bridge’s pillars in the river. At 1.27 am local time, the Dali mowed into the pillar and brought down a segment of the bridge.

Shortly before the collision, a U.S. Coast Guard report said, the Dali’s crew had broadcast a mayday signal seeking help to control the vessel. This signal had alerted the Coast Guard as well as prompted local authorities to close the bridge for further traffic. A part of the bridge’s superstructure also fell on the vessel, smashing some containers and leaving them balanced precariously on the vessel.

Maryland governor Wes Moore later declared a state of emergency. The emergency response to the collision and collapse included fire service personnel, police officers, and officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, they were present to ascertain whether the collision was accidental or deliberate. As of March 28, federal officials had virtually ruled out deliberate intent.

The Dali belongs to the Danish shipping giant Maersk, flies a Singapore flag, and is managed by the Synergy Marine Group, headed by Rajesh Unni. It had two pilots at the time of the collision.

What were the casualties?

The Synergy Marine Group said in statements that all the 22 crew members were safe, that one had suffered minor injuries, and that he had since been treated.

The bridge’s collapse dropped eight people through 15 metres into the Patapsco River, which at the time had a temperature of around 8 degrees C. While two people were fished out soon after, the Coast Guard postponed the search for six others because of the river’s depth, temperature, lack of light, the presence of sharp objects in the water, and the risk of more parts of the bridge and/or the containers falling in.

Late on March 27, the Coast Guard called the search off altogether. Read Admiral Shannon Gilreath told reporters the team no longer expected to find the six persons alive given the ambient conditions and the time lapsed since the incident.

What happened to the ship?

The Dali is propelled by a nine-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine. In the two-stroke cycle, fuel is pumped into the combustion chamber, where a spark plug causes the fuel-air mixture to explode. The energy release pushes a piston up, rotating a crankshaft attached to a propeller. The explosion’s residue (exhaust) is then pumped out of the engine to bring the piston down in the second stroke.

According to the Coast Guard, just before the collision, the Dali lost all mechanical power, electronics, and the ability to steer the ship, pointing to an engine failure. Onlookers reported the vessel’s lights coming back on shortly after, which experts have attributed to a backup generator. The Coast Guard also recorded a statement that at least one of the ship’s engines “coughed” and that “the smell of burned fuel was everywhere in the engine room”.

In 2016, the Dali had collided with and damaged a container terminal berth in Antwerp. In 2023, Chilean authorities reported issues with Dali’s propulsion system, although according to Singaporean authorities the vessel had cleared two inspections at foreign ports in June and September that year. As it got started on its preliminary investigation, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it will also be checking whether the fuel used in the Dali’s engine was contaminated.

Could the collision have been prevented?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge – the structure in question – was built in the mid-1970s. Colin Caprani, a civil engineer at Monash University, Melbourne, wrote that the protective shielding around the pillars into which the ship moved weren’t designed to withstand the impact of such a large vessel. Together with the vessel’s speed at the time of collision, around 15 km/hr, he estimated the impact force to be equivalent to 20,000 tonnes.

In 2016, Panama Canal authorities upgraded its locks to allow larger ships to pass through. The Dali‘s design was subsequently modified to increase its container capacity by 10%. Before 2016, such large ships had seldom made port on the U.S. west coast, including Baltimore, for this reason – nor did bridges over waterways here have to contend with them.

According to a 2018 article from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure, there were 35 “major bridge collapses” after a ship or barge collision between 1960 and 2015, in all killing 342 people. In the deadliest incident, a passenger vessel slammed into a bridge on the Volga river in Russia in 1983, killing 176 people, most of them on the ship. The same article said most of the bridge collapses had happened in the U.S.