Agencies make ‘aggressive’ efforts to find missing bridge workers
BALTIMORE — Divers braved the frigid waters of the Patapsco River on Wednesday to collect evidence, search for six missing construction workers and find out how to clear the channel of the collapsed remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the cargo ship that crashed into it about 1:27 a.m. Tuesday.
Wednesday afternoon, the bow of the massive Sri Lanka-bound ship, the Dali, was at the bottom of the Patapsco, weighed down by a piece of the bridge that had carried thousands of commuters across the harbor each day until its demise early Tuesday. The 984-foot ship has over 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil and lube oil on board, as well as about 4,700 cargo containers, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier said at a news conference Wednesday at the White House.
The ship is stable, and none of the roughly 50 cargo boxes containing hazardous materials that it’s carrying has gone overboard, Gautier said, noting there was no threat to public safety. The Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are trying to assess how to clear the channel to minimize the economic impact of the ongoing halt to operations at the Port of Baltimore, following President Joe Biden’s directive to “get the port up and running as soon as possible,” Gautier said.
“Given the magnitude and importance of this response, it’s going to be very, very aggressive,” he said.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard crews have boarded the ship, while divers plunge into the water and units conduct underwater surveys using remote operating vehicles, Gautier said.
The prior evening, authorities called off a search-and-rescue operation for the six men presumed to be dead after they collapsed with the bridge into the water. Officials said Tuesday evening that they were transitioning to a “recovery operation” due to
the frigid waters and because they did not believe the construction crew members would be found alive. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore vowed that officials would help the men’s families find closure by putting resources toward finding the victims’ bodies.
Two others were rescued Tuesday morning, one of whom was treated and released from a hospital, according to officials.
The six victims unaccounted for are construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge when the container ship struck a support column, causing the expanse to collapse.
In addition to those searching for the workers, crews from the transportation safety board and the FBI were also in the water to collect evidence. The board’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, said Wednesday that investigators had boarded the Dali overnight and would board again Wednesday to get electronic logs and components — “perishable evidence” that will go away as the collapse is cleaned up.
“The focus is what do we need for our investigation — whether it’s from the vessel or from the highway, from the bridge structure — identifying those, securing those before we do any sort of analysis,” she said. A spokesperson for the board said later Wednesday that investigators had recovered data from the black box, known as a Voyage Data Recorder.
Investigators were also developing a list of witnesses they sought to interview, including the cargo ship’s 22-member crew, which is still on board, according to a spokesperson for Synergy Marine Group, the Dali’s management company.
In addition to the crew members, a local pilot and an apprentice were on board, according to Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots Association. Local pilots, mariners who are highly trained in navigating local waters, assist ship crews in getting through testy harbors. The job, which Diamond described as the “pinnacle of a mariner career,” requires extensive, arduous training.
A pilot was at the helm of the Dali when it appeared to lose power early Tuesday, causing the ship’s steering and propulsion systems to fail, Diamond said. The pilot did “everything he could” by contacting authorities and steering the ship’s rudder to the left once its backup generators kicked in, though the ship’s engines were still inoperable, he said. The ship also dropped anchor. Those maneuvers gave authorities the extra time to shut down bridge traffic, he said.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Moore said he could not “stress enough the heroism” of the rescue and recovery teams who have braved the Patapsco’s frigid waters since Tuesday. He said the divers were in dark waters where they can only see “a foot in front of them,” navigating “mangled metal” in a place where people are believed to have died.
Moore said he had met Tuesday with the families of the missing workers and promised to use “every possible asset at our disposal to make sure they find a sense of closure.”
One employee of the highway construction company, who was not involved in the incident, Jesus Campos, said his missing co-workers were of Hispanic descent and were replacing concrete on the bridge at the time of the collision. The workers are all employees of the Hunt Valley firm Brawner Builders, according to Jeffrey Pritzker, its executive vice president.
The General Consulate of Guatemala in Maryland said in a Facebook post Tuesday that two of the missing workers were from that country.
One of the workers was identified by family members as Miguel Luna, a Salvadoran father of three who has lived in Maryland for 19 years. He and his five missing co-workers were the subject of Masses and vigils across the city Tuesday.
We are CASA, an immigration advocacy organization, identified a second victim Wednesday as Maynor Suazo Sandoval. He migrated from Honduras over 17 years ago and was an active member of CASA in Owings Mills.
A former Brawner Builders employee, Bobby Knutson Jr., identified a third victim as Alex Hernandez, a Mexican native and foreman of the construction crew.
At a vigil at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Baltimore city and county officials appeared alongside faith leaders, thanking first responders for their efforts and promising to support impacted families.
“We can only imagine what is going through (the families’) minds and through their hearts and through their bodies,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. “We have to lift them up, not just today, not just tomorrow but for the foreseeable future.”
Catholic Archbishop William Lori, alongside other priests, officiated at a Mass in honor of the men Tuesday. Father Ako Walker, a priest at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in the Highlandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, offered prayers in Spanish for the families at a separate vigil.