Indian sailor returns to ship after getting stitches after boat hits US bridge

The impact caused much of the bridge to fall into the mouth of the Patapsco River

New Delhi:

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said today that a sailor of 20 Indian nationals received stitches before returning to the stricken vessel after their cargo ship lost power and hit a bridge in Baltimore, US.

“There were 20 Indian crew members on board the ship. One of them was injured. He received treatment and received stitches. He has now returned to the ship,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters today.

New insights into the deadly disaster emerged a day after the massive Singapore-flagged container ship Daly, sailing from the Port of Baltimore to Sri Lanka, reported losing power and the ability to maneuver before hitting the bridge’s support towers.

The impact caused much of the bridge to immediately collapse into the mouth of the Patapsco River, blocking the shipping channel and forcing the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports on the U.S. East Coast.

A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) boarded the idle freighter early Wednesday and began interviewing the ship’s two pilots and the 21 civilian crew members who remained on board.

Minutes before the accident, the pilot was heard calling for tug assistance, the first sign port officials were in distress, and later radio reports said the ship had lost all power, National Transportation Safety Board officials said at a news conference Wednesday. , approaching the bridge. night.

Video footage of the incident shows the ship’s lights flickering, then briefly coming back on before going out again.

Investigators said the recorder data was “consistent with an outage,” but an actual outage has not been confirmed. The recorders also received commands from the crew to drop anchor, possibly to slow the vessel.

Of the 4,700 cargo containers on the ship, 56 contained hazardous materials, but there was no threat to the public. When the accident occurred, two containers fell into the sea, but there were no hazardous materials inside. The ship was carrying more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel.

According to Reuters