Federal safety investigators said Wednesday they have recovered a black box from a cargo ship that crashed into the Baltimore Bridge as rescuers search for the bodies of six construction workers lost in the bridge collapse. .
The twisting of the Francis Scott Key Bridge also comes as highway teams try to figure out how and why a container ship crashed into the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometre) bridge in the dark early Tuesday morning. We plan to investigate the wreckage.
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NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board recovered the data recorder after boarding the ship late Tuesday. They plan to interview the ship's crew and other survivors.
The disaster forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports on the U.S. East Coast, and created a traffic quagmire in Baltimore and surrounding areas.
Rescue teams pulled two construction workers alive from the sea on Tuesday. One person was hospitalized. The six people presumed dead included immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Mexican Consulate General in Washington.
Officials said the eight people were part of a crew repairing a pothole when the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali crashed into a support post as it left Baltimore for Sri Lanka.
The bridge trestle collapsed almost immediately into the water, carrying vehicles and workers into the river.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was searching for the body 18 hours after it was thrown from a bridge into frigid waters 50 feet deep at the mouth of the Patapsco River.
“They're in the dark, they can literally only see about a foot in front of them, and they're trying to climb over shattered metal where people probably lost their lives,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at the scene. Ta. .
Moore said at a news conference Tuesday that the bridge is in good condition with no known structural issues.
The 948-foot-long ship reported a loss of propulsion shortly before the collision and dropped anchor to slow the ship, giving transportation officials time to halt traffic on the bridge before the collision. The measure likely would have prevented the death toll from rising, authorities said.
It is also unclear whether authorities tried to warn the workers before the crash.
The NTSB's Homendy told reporters as he prepared to board the ship that data collected from the ship will provide investigators with a timeline of what happened as early as Wednesday. .
This process also includes taking photos of the ship and bridge, obtaining electronic logs, and interviewing first responders. The agency will also investigate whether contaminated fuel played a role in the ship's loss of power.
Vessel safety record
The Baltimore shipwreck drew attention to the ship's safety record. The ship was involved in an accident in 2016 when it collided with a quay in the Belgian port of Antwerp as it attempted to leave a North Sea container terminal.
An inspection carried out in Chile in 2023 found deficiencies in the “propulsion system and auxiliary machinery,” according to data on the Equasis public website, which provides information about the vessel.
However, the Singapore Maritime and Port Authority said in a statement that the ship had passed two foreign port inspections in June and September 2023. The ship said that after an inspection in June 2023, the fault in its fuel pressure gauge was corrected before leaving port.
Video footage on social media showed the ship crashing into the 47-year-old Quay Bridge in the dark, with vehicle headlights visible on the bridge as it hit the water and burst into flames.
According to a report from management company Synergy Marine, all 22 crew members on board the ship were killed.
The Port of Baltimore handles more motor vehicle cargo than any other U.S. port, with more than 750,000 vehicles handled in 2022, as well as containerized cargo ranging from sugar to coal, according to port data. We also handle bulk cargo.
Still, economists and logistics experts doubt that the port closure will cause a supply chain crisis in the U.S. and a significant jump in commodity prices, as rival ports along the East Coast have sufficient shipping capacity. said.
The loss of the bridge will also disrupt roads across Baltimore, forcing motorists to pass through two other busy port intersections and disrupting their daily commute for months and possibly years. It has become difficult to detour local transportation.
Named after the author of The Star-Spangled Banner, the bridge carries about 31,000 vehicles through the port each day and serves as a major route for motorists to bypass downtown Baltimore and connect New York to Washington. It opened in 1977.
Tuesday's disaster could be the worst bridge collapse in the United States since 2007, when the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.
