Baltimore bridge salvage work begins
4 construction workers still missing after crash
BALTIMORE – Authorities on Thursday forged ahead with a salvage operation to remove the mangled bridge and wreckage from the Patapsco River before recovering the bodies of four construction workers and clearing the waterway so the Port of Baltimore, a critical East Coast shipping artery, can resume operations.
A crew repairing potholes on the bridge Tuesday morning were on a break when a massive shipping vessel lost power and smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse in seconds. Eight workers were plunged into the frigid water. Two survived, and officials said the others were presumed dead by Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, rescuers found the bodies of two men trapped in a red pickup around the bridge’s middle span, Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The workers were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, Butler said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday gave his condolences to the families of the victims and addressed the immense collaboration between local, state and federal authorities to clear the wreck and open the port.
The piles of wreckage in the water, as well as the 984-foot-long cargo ship, the Dali, forced authorities to shut down the Port of Baltimore, which handles more cars and farm equipment than any other port in the nation.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey can take on additional cargo that’s being diverted from the Port of Baltimore.
A National Transportation Safety Board team Wednesday boarded the freighter to begin interviewing the ship’s two pilots and 21 crew members who remained on the vessel, safety board chief Jennifer Homendy said.
Investigators also began reviewing information from the ship’s Voyage Data Recorder, including radio traffic between the pilot and shore-based 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 harbor officials, followed by a radio report that the ship had lost all power and was approaching the bridge, NTSB officials said at a news briefing on Wednesday night. 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.
Safety board investigator Marcel Muise said data showed the Dali, measuring about three football fields in length and piled high with shipping containers, was moving at about 8 miles per hour when it struck a bridge abutment.
Homendy noted that the bridge, while deemed to be in “satisfactory” condition from its most recent inspection in 2023, was constructed in such a way that failure of one structural member “would likely cause a portion of, or the entire bridge to collapse.”
Ship underwent routine engine maintenance at Baltimore port
The Dali underwent “routine engine maintenance” at the port before it set out on its weekslong journey to Sri Lanka, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a news conference Wednesday.
Gilreath said the Coast Guard was not informed of any issues with the vessel or its engine.
The 9-year-old container ship was involved in at least one prior accident before it crashed into the bridge. In 2016, the Dali struck a loading pier made of stone while leaving port in Antwerp, causing damage to the ship’s stern, according to VesselFinder.com, a site that tracks ships across the world. An investigation found the ship’s master and pilot had made a mistake and were to blame. The ship required repair and a full inspection before being returned to service.
During an inspection in June, officials discovered a deficiency with the Dali’s “propulsion and auxiliary machinery (gauges, thermometers, etc),” according to the Tokyo MOU, an intergovernmental maritime authority in the Asia-Pacific region.
On Tuesday, the Dali was carrying the cargo of Maersk, the major shipping company that chartered it. The ship is operated by charter vessel company Synergy Group and is owned by Singapore-based Grace Ocean Pte.
Insurers could face losses up to $4 billion, experts say
The bridge collapse could cost insurers billions of dollars in claims, analysts say, and one put the toll at as much as $4 billion, which would make the tragedy a record shipping insurance loss.
“Depending on the length of the blockage and the nature of the business interruption coverage for the Port of Baltimore, insured losses could total between $2 billion and $4 billion,” said Marcos Alvarez, managing director for global insurance ratings at Morningstar DBRS. That would surpass the record insured losses of the Costa Concordia luxury cruise liner disaster in 2012, he said.
Mathilde Jakobsen, senior director of analytics at insurance ratings agency AM Best, also said the claims would likely run into “billions of dollars.”