PILOT ‘ASKED FOR HELP, REPORTED POWER LOSS’
‘Black box’ audio gives new insights into collision as officials reveal bridge lacked redundancies, making it more vulnerable to catastrophic collapse
The pilot of the cargo freighter that knocked down a highway bridge into Baltimore harbour had radioed for tugboat help and reported a power loss minutes earlier, federal safety officials have said, citing audio from the ship’s “black box” data recorder.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also said that Francis Scott Key Bridge, a traffic artery over the harbour built in 1976, lacked structural engineering redundancies common to newer spans, making it more vulnerable to a catastrophic collapse.
New insights into the fatal disaster emerged a day after the massive Singapore-flagged container ship Dali sailing out of Baltimore harbour bound for Sri Lanka reported losing power and the ability to manoeuvre before ploughing into a support pylon of the bridge.
The impact brought most of the bridge tumbling into the mouth of the Patapsco River almost immediately, blocking shipping lanes and forcing the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the US eastern seaboard.
Divers on Wednesday had recovered the remains of two of the six workers missing since the crumbling bridge tossed them into the water, officials said.
Maryland state police colonel Roland Butler said a red truck containing the bodies of the two men was found in about 7.62 metres of water near the midsection of the fallen bridge.
He also said authorities had suspended efforts to locate and retrieve more bodies from the depths because of increasingly treacherous conditions in the wreckage-strewn river.
Butler said sonar images showed additional submerged vehicles “encased” in fallen bridge debris and superstructure, making them difficult to reach.
The two men whose bodies were recovered on Wednesday were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, a native of Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of nearby Dundalk, originally from Guatemala.
Four more workers who were part of a crew filling potholes on the bridge’s road surface remained missing and presumed dead. The six workers also included immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador, officials said.
Rescuers pulled two workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one was hospitalised.
The economic fallout could be staggering. The port handles more automobile and farm equipment freight than any other in the country, as well as container freight and bulk goods ranging from sugar to coal.
US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg said 8,000 jobs were “directly associated” with port operations, which generate US$2 million a day in wages.
Still, economists and logistics experts doubted the port closure would trigger a major US supply chain crisis or significant spike in the price of goods, due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs along the East Coast.
The collapse has created a traffic quagmire as well for Baltimore and the surrounding region.
Earlier on Wednesday, an NTSB team had boarded the idled freighter, still anchored in the harbour channel with part of the mangled bridge splayed over its bow, to begin interviewing the ship’s 22 crew members, who remained on the vessel, safety board chief Jennifer Homendy said.
Investigators also began reviewing information collected from the ship’s voyage data recorder, including radio traffic between the pilot and shorebased authorities leading up to the disaster.
The pilot was heard calling for tugboat assistance several minutes before the crash, the first indication of distress to harbour officials, followed by a radio report that the ship had lost all power and was approaching the bridge, NTSB officials have said.
Video footage that captured the accident show the ship’s lights winking off, then back on briefly before the vessel’s lights go out again.
Homendy said recorder data was “consistent with a power outage” but that an actual blackout had yet to be confirmed.
The recorder also picked up commands to the crew to drop anchor, presumably aimed at slowing the vessel.