6 workers presumed dead after cargo ship crash levels Baltimore bridge

Timeline of crash

Dramatic video captured the second at 1:28 a.m. Tuesday when the Dali struck a assist and despatched the bridge tumbling into the water. A livestream confirmed vehicles and vans on the bridge simply earlier than the strike. The ship didn’t sink, and its lights remained on.

Investigators mentioned in a timeline that the Dali’s lights all of a sudden shut off 4 minutes earlier earlier than they got here again on and that then, at 1:25 a.m. darkish black smoke started billowing from the ship’s chimney.

A minute later, at 1:26 a.m., the ship appeared to show. And within the minutes earlier than it slammed into the assist, the lights flickered once more.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld mentioned the employees on the bridge have been repairing concrete ducts when the ship crashed into the construction.

At the very least seven staff have been pouring concrete to repair potholes on the roadway on the bridge instantly above the place the ship hit, mentioned James Krutzfeldt, a foreman.

Earlier, the Coast Guard mentioned it had obtained a report {that a} “motor vessel made impression with the bridge” and confirmed it was the Dali, a containership crusing below a Singaporean flag that was heading for Sri Lanka.

Bobby Haines, who lives in Dundalk in Baltimore County, mentioned he felt the impression of the bridge collapse from his home close by.

“I awoke at 1:30 this morning and my home shook, and I used to be freaking out,” he mentioned. “I believed it was an earthquake, and to search out out it was a bridge is absolutely, actually scary.”

Households of bridge staff anticipate updates

Earlier within the day, kin of the development crew waited for updates on their family members.

Marian Del Carmen Castellon instructed Telemundo her husband, Miguel Luna, 49, was engaged on the bridge.

“They solely inform us that we’ve to attend and that they’ll’t give us data,” she mentioned.

Castellon mentioned she was “devastated, devastated as a result of our coronary heart is damaged, as a result of we don’t understand how they’ve been rescued but. We’re simply ready for the information.”

Luna’s co-worker Jesús Campos mentioned he felt crushed, too.

“It hurts my coronary heart to see what is occurring. We’re human beings, and they’re my of us,” he mentioned.

Campos instructed The Baltimore Banner that the lacking males are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Lively search and rescue ends

The Coast Guard mentioned it was suspending the energetic search-and-rescue effort at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“Coast Guard’s not going away, none of our companions are going away, however we’re simply going to transition into a distinct section,” Gilreath mentioned at a information convention.

Maryland State Police Superintendent Roland L. Butler, Jr., mentioned it was shifting to a restoration operation. Altering circumstances have made it harmful for divers, he mentioned. 

Butler pledged to “do our easiest to get better these six lacking folks,” however the circumstances are troublesome.

“If we have a look at how difficult it’s at a easy motorcar crash to extract a person, I am certain we are able to all think about how a lot tougher it’s to do it in inclement climate, when it is chilly, below the water, with very restricted to no visibility,” he mentioned.

“There is a great quantity of particles within the water,” which may embody sharp steel and different hazards, and that would take time, Butler mentioned.

‘An extended highway in entrance of us’

In-built 1977 and referred to regionally because the Key Bridge, the construction was later named after the creator of the American nationwide anthem.

The bridge is greater than 8,500 toes lengthy, or 1.6 miles. Its predominant part spans 1,200 toes, and it was one of many longest steady truss bridges on the earth upon its completion, in line with the Nationwide Metal Bridge Alliance.

About 31,000 automobiles a day use the bridge, which equals 11.3 million automobiles per 12 months, in line with the Maryland Transportation Authority.

The river and the Port of Baltimore are each key to the delivery trade on the East Coast, producing greater than $3.3 billion a 12 months and instantly using greater than 15,000 folks.

Requested what folks in Baltimore can anticipate going ahead, the state’s transportation secretary mentioned it’s too early to inform.

“Clearly we reached out to plenty of engineering corporations, so clearly we’ve a protracted highway in entrance of us,” Wiedefeld mentioned.

Julia Jester reported from Baltimore, Patrick Smith from London, Corky Siemaszko from New York and Phil Helsel from Los Angeles.