The Francis Scott Key bridge toppled into the Patapsco River early Tuesday after being struck by a cargo ship that had lost power, and rescue teams were frantically searching for six members of a construction crew believed to have fallen into the waters below.
Authorities said the ship was departing the Port of Baltimore around 1:30 a.m. when it struck a column of the 1.6-mile-long bridge. Dramatic video showed the ship’s lights shutting off and flickering before making contact with the bridge, which buckled and collapsed.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the ship’s crew had notified authorities of a mayday caused by a “power issue.” That enabled transportation officials to stop traffic traveling over the bridge.
“I have to say I’m thankful for the folks who once the point came up and notification came up, that there was a mayday,” Moore said. “Who literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives.”
Officials initially said they were concerned that up to 20 people had plunged into the water but appeared to later revise that number.
“To hear the words, ‘the Key Bridge has collapsed,’ it’s shocking, and heartbreaking,” Moore said in a mid-morning news conference.
Eight members of a construction crew repairing potholes were believed to have fallen into the water, two of whom were rescued.
At an afternoon press conference, Moore said “this is still very much an active search and rescue mission.” He said there is not a single resource that the state will hold off on deploying.“
He and other officials said recovery and rebuilding efforts would take time.
“This is no ordinary bridge,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said from Baltimore. “This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure. It has been part of the skyline of this region for longer than many of us have been alive.”
“So the path to normalcy will not be easy. It will not be quick. It will not be inexpensive,” he added. “But we will rebuild together.”
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, did not rule out that there could be additional victims. “Nobody is going by a number. They are just looking and searching,” she said.
Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley said there was “absolutely no indication” that the crash was intentional, which federal law enforcement authorities echoed.
President Joe Biden addressed the bridge collapse from the White House, pledging that the federal government would pick up the “entire” cost of repairing the bridge and that he “expected” Congress to support such efforts.
Biden stressed the importance of the Port of Baltimore and its 15,000 jobs, saying: “We’re going to do everything we can to protect those jobs and help those workers.”
“It’s going to take some time, but the people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them every step of the way, ‘til the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt,” said Biden, who noted he had traveled over the bridge many times. “We’re not leaving until this job gets done.”
The Maryland Transportation Authority said that the construction crew was working on repairing potholes. Jesus Campos, an employee of contractor Brawner Builders, had worked the overnight shift of the bridge work before switching to another. He said the missing men are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and live in Dundalk and Highlandtown. They are in their 30s and 40s, he said, with spouses and children.
All of them came to the city for a better life, he said — not necessarily for themselves, but for the loved ones they left behind in their home countries.
“They are all hard-working, humble men,” he said.
Moore said he’s had the opportunity to spend time with families and pray with them. He described their strength as “absolutely remarkable.”
“This is an excruciating day for several families who went to bed last night having it be a normal night and woke up today to news that no one wants to receive,” Buttigieg said. “They are hoping and praying, and we are hoping and praying with them.”
Synergy Marine Group, the technical manager for the Singapore cargo ship Dali said in a statement all 22 crew members on board, including two pilots, have been accounted for and there were no reported injuries. The company said owners and managers are cooperating with government agencies.
Out of the 27 inspections documented for Dali since 2015, two have found deficiencies, according to an online database maintained by Electronic Quality Shipping Information System. In 2016, the ship was found to have hull damage and in June an inspection found problems with “propulsion and auxiliary machinery.”
The 985-foot-long, 95,000 gross ton vessel was last inspected in September by the U.S. Coast Guard, which found no deficiencies, according to the database.
Container ships are guided in and out of Baltimore waters by Chesapeake Bay pilots. These men and women relay instructions to the captain at the wheel of a container ship. The ships are too big and waters too unfamiliar for foreign pilots to navigate the bay themselves.
Moore declared a state of emergency following the collapse, and said the federal government was sending resources to help the city, county and state teams already on the scene.
NTSB said a team of 24 investigators was on scene but standing back as not to impede search and rescue efforts. That includes accessing recording devices on the ship that may have captured critical information about what took place aboard.
The bridge, which opened this week in 1977 and sees 11.3 million vehicles cross annually, linked Interstate 695 over the Patapsco and was one of three ways to cross Baltimore’s harbor. The Maryland Transportation Authority said that all lanes were closed in both directions of the I-695 corridor, and told motorists to use I-95 or I-895.
The collapse shut down vessel traffic into and out of the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore. The port will likely be shut down for some time, which could be a crippling blow to commerce in the region and beyond. Port officials noted that trucks were still being processed within the marine terminals.
“At this time we do not know how long vessel traffic will be suspended,” officials said.
Images after the collapse show orange cones blocking traffic on the westbound lanes. A budget document from the MDTA show the bridge needed a total replacement of the concrete deck and some structural repairs to prolong its lifespan.
Jenny Luna said her father-in-law, Miguel Luna, was one of seven construction workers believed to be on the bridge at the time of the collapse. She hasn’t heard anything about his whereabouts. She said her husband got a call from a friend this morning and they headed to the bridge seeking information.
Rescue crews battled darkness, murky water and rising tides, according to officials on the scene. Cartwright said the pre-dawn visibility was “poor to none.”
“We can certainly dive in these conditions, but we have to take a lot of factors into play,” Wallace said.
Adding to the search and rescue challenges is cold water temperatures in the bay, which reduce the amount of time someone can survive. Temperatures this morning hovered in the mid 40s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A person in water that cold without protective equipment can expect to remain conscious for about an hour, and can survive for about three hours, according to the National Weather Service.
“We’re going to rely on our experts, our dive teams that are here, to tell us when they’ve reached that non-survival point,” Wallace said.
Before shipping can resume into and out of the port, crews will need to pull debris out of the water and clear the 50-foot-deep channel that ships used, said William P. Doyle, a former director of the port who now heads the Dredging and Marine Construction Association of America.
“You’re going to have to pick out the trusses and parts of the bridge that are in the water,” Doyle said. “The channel is going to be closed. That means any of the larger vessels that are in the Inner Harbor Port of Baltimore — inside of the Key Bridge — are going to remain there until further notice. All the other ships coming up the Chesapeake Bay are going to have to go on anchorage or divert to another port.”
Banner reporters Lee Sanderlin, Penelope Blackwell and Clara Longo de Freitas contributed to this story. This story originally appeared on The Baltimore Banner .
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