A cargo ship leaving the Port of Baltimore lost power and issued a mayday call shortly before colliding with a large bridge on Tuesday morning (26), giving authorities a brief opportunity to stop cars and attempt to evacuate the bridge before it fell into the river.
By Tuesday morning, six construction workers repairing the Francis Scott Key Bridge remained missing as divers and rescuers continued their search for them. Two other workers were rescued alive from the site on Tuesday morning.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore called the episode a terrible accident. “We have not seen credible evidence of a terrorist attack,” he said. The bridge is part of Interstate 695.
Authorities initially feared that drivers were submerged in their cars in the Patapsco River. But the alert from the Dali, a Singapore-flagged ship, gave authorities enough time to halt traffic at both ends of the bridge, according to several Maryland and federal officials.
People who blocked traffic “undoubtedly saved lives,” President Biden said from the White House on Tuesday. He added that the Coast Guard would continue search and rescue efforts and that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would clear the channel to help reopen Baltimore to maritime traffic. “We will rebuild this port together,” he said.
Here is a summary of what happened and what is known so far about the accident:
– The Dali, a 948-foot-long ship, struck a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge around 1:30 a.m., according to the ship’s owners. All crew members, including two harbor pilots who were navigating the ship at the time of the accident, were found uninjured. The Dali left Baltimore at 1 a.m. and was headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka, according to MarineTraffic, a maritime data platform.
– Despite the mayday call from the ship before hitting the bridge, the bridge repair crew remained on it, with their vehicles parked on the section that collapsed, authorities said. One of the two rescued workers was in the hospital until Tuesday afternoon.
– An inspection of the Dali last year at a port in Chile reported that the ship had a deficiency related to “propulsion and auxiliary machinery.” The inspection, conducted on June 27 at the port of San Antonio, specified that the deficiency pertained to gauges and thermometers. A spokesperson for the Dali’s owners declined to comment.
– The bridge was named after Francis Scott Key, the author of the American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner,” who was born in Maryland. The structure was inaugurated in 1977. About 30,000 vehicles pass over it every day, according to Maryland officials.
– President Biden said he expects the federal government to pay “the entire cost” of rebuilding the bridge and urged Congress to support efforts to fund the repairs. It is difficult to estimate how long it will take to rebuild the bridge.
Source: The New York Times and CNN