Baltimore Bridge Collapse Highlights: 6 missing workers presumed dead; Biden praises prompt ‘mayday’ call by Dali’s Indian crew

A construction company employee who said he labored alongside the six men missing after a Baltimore bridge collapse said many of his co-workers were migrants working to support their relatives.

“We’re low-income families,” said Jesus Campos, who has worked at the construction company, Brawner Builders, for about eight months. “Our relatives are waiting for our help back in our home countries.”

The men worked for Brawner, a contractor based in Baltimore County, a senior executive at the company said Tuesday. The executive, Jeffrey Pritzker, and the Coast Guard said that all of the missing workers were presumed dead, given how long it had been since the collapse.

“They were wonderful family people,” Pritzker said, before describing the victims’ survivors. “Spouses, children.” He added, “It’s just a very, very bad day.” (NYT)

It was the middle of the night when a dispatcher’s warning crackled over the radio: A massive cargo ship had lost its steering capabilities and was heading toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Within about 90 seconds, police officers responded that they had managed to stop vehicle traffic over the Baltimore bridge in both directions. One said he was about to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew. But it was too late. Powerless and laden with huge containers, the vessel smashed into a support pillar.

“The whole bridge just fell down,” a frantic officer said. “Start, start whoever, everybody ... the whole bridge just collapsed.”

US President Joe Biden hailed the prompt action of the 22-member Indian crew of the cargo ship that struck and demolished a key bridge for saving lives by alerting local authorities before the dramatic collision.

In remarks at the White House, Biden praised the ship's crew, saying the alert they sent before the collision saved lives. “Personnel on board the ship were able to alert the Maryland Department of Transportation that they had lost control of their vessel…As a result, local authorities were able to close the bridge to traffic before the bridge was struck, which undoubtedly saved lives,” Biden said.

The Dali was leaving Baltimore en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka. All 22 crew, including two pilots on board, have been accounted for and there were no injuries, the ship's manager, Synergy Marine Group said.

The registered owner of the Singapore-flagged ship is Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, LSEG data show. The ship measures 948 feet (289 meters) — as long as three football fields placed end to end — and was stacked high with containers.

The ship can hold up to 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit, or TEU, a measure of cargo capacity. It was carrying 4,679 TEU. 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 in Chile found the vessel had "propulsion and auxiliary machinery" deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.

Search divers were expected to return near dawn on Wednesday to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of a bridge knocked down in Baltimore Harbor by a faltering cargo ship, leaving six workers missing and presumed dead. The disaster also forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the US Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.

The authorities are still investigating to ascertain the exact cause of the crash. The 985-foot-long cargo vessel, called The Dali, was leaving the Port of Baltimore when it lost power and issued a mayday call just before hitting a pillar of the bridge. Radio traffic from emergency workers suggested that the crew was struggling to steer the ship, according to audio published by Broadcastify. Most of the lights of the ship went dark abruptly, just over two minutes before the ship hit the bridge.

In case you’re tuning in now, here’s a round-up of everything that happened since yesterday

• Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel, ploughed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge shortly after departing the Port of Baltimore.
• Despite the ship’s mayday call, the road repair crew remained on the bridge, with its vehicles parked on the span, the authorities said. Two construction workers were rescued from the water, and one went to the hospital. The six who were lost have been presumed dead.
• All crew members aboard the Dali were accounted for and safe, the ship’s owners said, and there were no injuries on board. The Dali had left Baltimore at 1 am and was bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.
• An inspection of the Dali last year at a port in Chile reported that the vessel had a deficiency related to “propulsion and auxiliary machinery”, the New York Times reported. The inspection, conducted on June 27 at the port of San Antonio, specified that the deficiency concerned gauges and thermometers. A spokesman for the Dali’s owners declined to comment on the report.

The six workers, who were missing since a cargo vessel plowed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge shortly after departing the Port of Baltimore, with the Coast Guard saying that they presume all of them were dead. The authorities have officially ended their search. The Dali, a nearly 1,000-feet-long container ship, while leaving the Port of Baltimore lost power and issued a mayday call just before hitting a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse. Most of the lights of the ship went dark abruptly, just over two minutes before the ship hit the bridge.

Six workers were missing and presumed dead from a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore Harbor early on Tuesday when a massive cargo ship crippled by a power loss rammed into the structure, forcing closure of one of the busiest ports on the US Eastern Seaboard.

US Coast Guard and Maryland State Police officials said that based on the frigid temperature of the water and the length of time that had elapsed since the bridge came down there was little if any chance that the six missing could be found alive.

The Singapore-flagged container vessel named Dali, heading out of the harbor bound for Sri Lanka, plowed into a support pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the mouth of the Patapsco River at about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT).

A trestled section of the of the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) span almost immediately crumpled into the icy water, sending vehicles and people into the river.

Rescuers pulled two survivors to safety, one of whom was hospitalized. But active search-and-rescue operations were suspended about 18 hours after the tragedy, authorities said. Read Full Report

US automakers General Motors and Ford will reroute affected shipments after a bridge collapse in the U.S. shuttered the Port of Baltimore, but the companies said on Tuesday the impact will be minimal.

“We expect the situation to have minimal impact to our operations. We are working to re-route any vehicle shipments to other ports,” GM said in a statement.

The Port of Baltimore 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. Motor vehicles and parts accounted for 42% of all Baltimore port imports.

Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said the bridge collapse, which happened after a container ship smashed into the four-lane bridge early on Tuesday, will force the automaker to divert parts to other ports and impact its supply chain.

“It’s going to have an impact,” Lawler told Bloomberg News. “We’ll have to divert parts to other ports… It will probably lengthen the supply chain a bit.” Read Full Report

President Joe Biden said Tuesday he plans to travel to Baltimore “as quickly as I can” and that he plans for the federal government to pick up the entire cost of reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed earlier in the day after a container ship lost power and struck it.

“We’re going to rebuild that port together,” Biden said in brief remarks from the White House, shortly before departing for North Carolina.The president said he expects lawmakers on Capitol Hill to support his bid to ensure the US government pays for rebuilding the bridge, reads AP report

• Maryland Governor Wes Moore declared a State of Emergency in Maryland. He also announced that local authorities are working with an inter-agency team that are carrying out rescue efforts.
• The governor declared a state of emergency, while the FBI on the scene said there was no credible information to suggest terrorism. 
• US President Joe Biden directed for the deployment of every federal resource towards the search and rescue operations that are underway. 
• The ship's movement was outbound from Baltimore to Colombo, where it was to reach on April 22.
• The Francis Scott Key Bridge opened in 1977 and is among the world's longest truss bridges. It is named after the writer of US's national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 
• The collapse is almost sure to create a logistical nightmare for months, if not years, along the East Coast, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore and snarling cargo and commuter traffic.
• From 1960 to 2015, there have been 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collision, with a total of 342 people killed, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. Eighteen of those collapses happened in the United States.

• A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after a large boat collided with it, plunging a construction crew and multiple vehicles into the water.
• Rescuers pulled out two people, but six others were missing. One of those rescued was taken to a hospital.
• Multiple vehicles were on the bridge at the time, including one the size of a tractor-trailer. Authorities said sonar had detected vehicles in the water, which is about 50 feet deep.
• The water temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius), lending extreme urgency to rescue operations as experts said a human could only survive in such temperatures for around three hours.
• The entire 22-member all-Indian crew of the cargo ship that struck a bridge are accounted for and have no injuries. Synergy Marine Group, operator of the vessel, said there has also been no pollution.
• The ship's crew issued a mayday call moments before the crash took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, enabling authorities to limit vehicle traffic on the span.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M Scott launched a helpline to assist people who are trying to process the bridge collapse. 'Please call or text 988 to speak to a CALL 988 counselor. It’s free, confidential and available 24/7,' he wrote on X.

General Motors and Ford Motor will reroute affected shipments after a bridge collapse in the U.S. shuttered the Port of Baltimore, but the companies said the impact will be minimal.

"We expect the situation to have minimal impact to our operations. We are working to re-route any vehicle shipments to other ports," GM said in a statement.

The Port of Baltimore 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. Motor vehicles and parts accounted for 42% of all Baltimore port imports.

Danish shipping company Maersk said its vessels will omit the Baltimore port for the foreseeable future due to the ship collision that destroyed a bridge and blocked access to the harbour.

A major bridge collapsed in the U.S. port of Baltimore in the early hours of Tuesday after being struck by a container ship, plunging cars into the river below. Traffic was suspended at the port until further notice, Maryland transportation authorities said.

PORT FEATURES
It is the deepest harbor in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, closer to the Midwest than other East Coast ports, with five public and 12 private terminals, according to Maryland government website.
It is one of the smallest container ports on the Northeastern seaboard, handling 265,000 containers in the fourth quarter of last year, according to container shipping expert Lars Jensen.
The Port of New York and New Jersey handled around 2 million containers in that same period, and Norfolk Port in Virginia handled 850,000, so the flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, Jensen said.

CURRENT STATUS OF CARGO SHIPS INSIDE PORT
More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore port, including small cargo ships, tug boats and pleasure craft, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic shows.
At least 30 other ships had signalled their destination was Baltimore, the data showed.

IMPORTS
It is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration. The port handles imports and exports for major automakers including Nissan, Toyota, General Motors , Volvo Car, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen, including luxury models for Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley.
It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products.
Imports of agricultural products totalled 3 million tonnes last year, including 1.2 million of sugar and salt, as well as gypsum, fertilisers and forest products, according to Ishan Bhanu, lead agricultural commodities analyst at Kpler.
Other top imports were paper/paperboard and plywood/veneer/particle board, the Maryland authority website shows.

EXPORTS
In 2023, the port was the second busiest for coal exports. Its eight dry bulk terminals exported 22 million tonnes of coal last year and small amounts of other metals and minerals, according to Kpler's Bhanu.
Other top export commodities by weight in 2022 were liquefied natural gas (LNG), wastepaper, ferrous scrap, and automobiles/light trucks, according to Maryland government data.
Cove Point, which is upstream from the bridge, is the nearest LNG terminal. ICIS ship tracking data show Cove Point typically exports about 500,000 tonnes per month.

CRUISE SHIPS
It is also a cruise terminal, with operators Norwegian , Carnival and Royal Caribbean, all using the port for Caribbean, Canadian, and other Atlantic destinations.
In 2023, cruises carrying more than 444,000 passengers departed from the port, the Maryland government website says.

LONDON METAL EXCHANGE WAREHOUSES
In Baltimore warehouses registered with the London Metal Exchange, there are 756 metric tons of nickel, 150 tons of tin and 50 tons of copper, LME data shows.

Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said it was in contact with the U.S coastguard and the management company of a Singapore-registered ship involved in a bridge collapse incident in Baltimore.

"As the flag state, MPA will provide full cooperation to the U.S. Coast Guard in its investigations," it said in a statement. "MPA will also be investigating the incident." It said there were 22 crew aboard the Dali at the time of the incident. 

The 1.6-mile (2.57 km) long Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday after being struck by a container ship, plunging cars into the water.

Here's what we know about the Key Bridge:

* The Francis Scott Key Bridge spanning the Patapsco River is named after the author of the Star Spangled Banner, who was inspired to write the words in 1814 after witnessing the British defeat at the Battle of Baltimore.
* The 1.6 mile outer crossing of the Baltimore Harbor opened in March 1977 as the final link in I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway).
* Other structures along the route include a 0.64-mile dual-span drawbridge over Curtis Creek and two .74-mile parallel bridge structures that carry traffic over Bear Creek, near Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant.
* The bridge, at an estimated cost of $110 million, allowed for more traffic lanes and carried lower operating and maintenance costs than a tunnel

Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the Dali vessel. No Maersk crew and personnel were on board. The collapse caused Maersk share at the Nasdaq Copenhagen to plummet 2% in early Tuesday trading.

From 1960 to 2015, there have been 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collision, with a total of 342 people killed, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. Eighteen of those collapses happened in the United States.

A list of notable disasters involving ships or barges hitting bridges in the US:

POPP'S FERRY BRIDGE
March 20, 2009: A vessel pushing eight barges rammed into the Popp's Ferry Bridge in Biloxi, Mississippi, resulting in a 150-foot section of the bridge collapsing into the bay.

QUEEN ISABELLA CAUSEWAY: 8 DEAD
September 15, 2001: A tugboat and barge struck the Queen Isabella Causeway in Port Isabel, Texas, causing a midsection of the bridge to tumble 80 feet into the bay below. Eight people died after motorists drove into the hole.

EADS BRIDGE: 50 INJURED
April 14, 1998: The Anne Holly tow travelling through the St Louis Harbour rammed into the centre span of the Eads Bridge. Eight barges broke away. Three of them hit a permanently moored gambling vessel below the bridge. Fifty people suffered minor injuries.

BIG BAYOU CANOT: 47 DEAD
September 22, 1993: Barges being pushed by a towboat in dense fog hit and displaced the Big Bayou Canot railroad bridge near Mobile, Alabama. Minutes later, an Amtrak train with 220 people aboard reached the displaced bridge and derailed, killing 47 people and injuring 103 people.

SEEBER BRIDGE: 1 DEAD
May 28, 1993: The towboat Chris, pushing the empty hopper barge DM3021, hit a support tier of the Judge William Seeber Bridge in New Orleans. Two spans and the two-column bent collapsed onto the barge. Two cars carrying three people fell with the four-lane bridge deck into a canal. One person died and two people were seriously injured.

SUNSHINE SKYWAY BRIDGE: 35 DEAD
May 9, 1980: The 609-foot freighter Summit Venture was navigating through the narrow, winding shipping channel of Florida's Tampa Bay when a sudden, blinding squall knocked out the ship's radar. The ship sheared off a support of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, dropping a 1,400-foot section of concrete roadway during the morning rush hour. Seven vehicles, including a bus with 26 aboard, fell 150 feet into the water. Thirty-five people died.

US President Joe Biden said he was briefed by senior members of his team on the bridge collapse, adding that he has directed for the deployment of every federal resource towards the search and rescue operations that are underway. 

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge had the third-longest main span among the world's continuous truss bridges. 

The bridge measured over 1,200 feet between adjacent towers and supporting pillars. The longest truss bridge is in Japan, spanning just over 1,300 feet.

A technician onboard a vessel managed by Synergy was killed when an elevator malfunctioned in 2018, according to authorities in Australia, The Guardian reported.

In 2019, an officer on a Synergy-registered vessel was reported missing. Investigation concluded that the officer could have fallen overboard while working on a lifeboat.

In 2023, a tanker partly managed by Synergy collided with a dredger off the coast of the Philippines, killing a Filipino national and a Chinese national.

Baltimore port’s private and public terminals handled 8,47,158 autos and light trucks in 2023, the most of any US port, Al Jazeera reported. As per the Maryland government website, the port handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal.

While it is not the US East Coast's largest port, the volume it handles could have a likely impact on supply chains.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the Dali ship’s crew had issued a 'mayday request' about losing power around the time when the cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key bridge. In response, the officials were able to slow the flow of traffic, preventing more vehicles from falling into the water.

Moore added that the bridge was "fully up to code" before the bridge collapse.

The vessel Dali, which collided with the Baltimore bridge, was also involved in a collision in 2016 in Antwerp, Belgium, according to Vessel Finder. According to Vessel Finder, the weather was fine at the time and the incident was blamed on the ship’s master and pilot on board.

According to the Guardian, the ship's bow scraped the side of the quay while it was leaving port of Antwerp heading to Bremerhaven. The ship was detained by authorities afterward and docked in Deurganckdok, Belgium.

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued flight restrictions around the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse site. The aviation body urged citizens to not interfere with rescue operations.

MDTA declared that harbour crossings can be done through the alternate routes of I-95 and I-895 tunnels. Vehicles transporting hazardous materials will be prohibited in tunnels and should use the western section of I-695 around tunnels.

Stating that the White House is "closely monitoring" the situation after the Baltimore bridge collapse, it offered consolation to the families of those who went missing since the incident of the bridge collapse.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency, while also thanking those who are carrying out search and rescue operations.

• Fire Chief James Wallace said there are no reports of the smell of diesel fuel from the incident area, adding that the picture will be clearer as an assessment is made in day light
• Wallace also denied an angle of "terrorism" to the bridge collapse.
• He denied having any information as to whether there was a problem with the ship.

Divers have been pressed into service as search and rescue operations gained momentum, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski told CNN.

Olszewski said the “most recent intelligence” is that there are “at least seven people who are impacted". Speaking about the challenges of the operation, he said the deep channel port is about 50 feet of water with strong currents, windy weather and cold water.

The water at the site of the bridge collapse is about 9°C, a potentially deadly temperature as water drains body heat about four times faster than cold air. CNN’s Derek Van Dam said the body can sustain temperatures that cold only for a one to three-hour window.

The 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge extends over the Patapsco River into the Port of Baltimore, according to the Maryland Transport Authority (MTA).

The bridge opened in 1977 and is named after the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner". It is believed that Francis Scott Key sat near the site of the bridge, where witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 inspired him to write the US national anthem.

The ship operated by Maersk crashed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge's supports, causing the structure to snap and buckle at several points and tumble into the water in a matter of seconds — a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media.

The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.

The collapse came at night when the bridge does not have many travellers. At day time, thousands of cars traverse the span.

Some cargo appeared to be dangling from the bridge, which spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbor.

Here are the top things we know so far:

? The vessel appears to have crashed into one of the supports of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.

? Some cargo appeared to be dangling from the bridge, which spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbor.

? The press officer handling communications for Synergy Marine Group, which operated the vessel that crashed into the bridge, told the BBC it was an all-Indian crew with 22 people on board.

Read the full story here

In 2001, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in a tunnel in downtown Baltimore and caught fire, spewing black smoke into surrounding neighborhoods and forcing officials to temporarily close all major roads into the city.

Synergy Marine Group — which owns and manages the ship called the “Dali” — confirmed the vessel hit a pillar of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m. while two pilots were in control. It said all crew members, including the pilots, were accounted for and there are no reports of any injuries.

Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, as its final destination, according to Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder. The ship was flying under a Singapore flag, WTOP radio station reported, citing Petty Officer Matthew West from the Coast Guard in Baltimore.

Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, called the collapse a “developing mass casualty event". He added that some cargo appeared to be dangling from the bridge, which spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbor.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency and said he was working to get federal resources deployed. The FBI was also on the scene.

The cargo ship appears to have crashed into one of the bridge's supports during the middle of night when traffic would be expected to be lighter, according to a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott caled it “an unthinkable tragedy". The fire chief said authorities “may be looking for upwards of seven people” but said that number could change. It was not clear if the two rescued were included in the seven.

Sonar has indicated that there are vehicles in the water, where the temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius), according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Earlier, Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press that several vehicles were on the bridge at the time, including one the size of a tractor-trailer truck.

Two people were rescued from the water after a container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore, causing it to snap in a few places and plunge into the river below. Reuters reported that while one person refused service, another was transported to a local trauma centre and is in a serious condition.