The Port of Baltimore handles more automobile freight than any other port in the United States
Baltimore:
U.S. federal safety investigators have recovered black boxes from a cargo ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge as rescuers search for the bodies of six construction workers killed in a bridge collapse, they said on Wednesday.
A highway team will also examine the twisted remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning, trying to determine how and why a container ship struck a pillar of the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) span.
NTSB investigators found the data recorder after boarding the ship late Tuesday, NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy said. She said they would interview crew members and other survivors.
The disaster forced the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports on the U.S. East Coast, to close indefinitely and created a traffic quagmire in Baltimore and surrounding areas.
Rescuers pulled two construction workers from the water on Tuesday. One patient is hospitalized. The Mexican consulate in Washington said the six people killed were presumed to have included migrants from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Officials said the eight people were among crews repairing potholes when the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali struck a support tower as it left Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka.
A section of the bridge’s supports almost immediately collapsed into the water, causing vehicles and workers to fall 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 50 feet of frigid waters at the mouth of the Patapsco River.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at the scene, “They were in the dark and could see about a foot in front of them and they were trying to navigate through the destroyed metal.” “This is an area where people are thought to have lost their lives. life”. .
Moore said at a news conference Tuesday that the bridge complies with code and has no known structural issues.
The 948-foot (289-meter) vessel reported a loss of propulsion shortly before impact and dropped anchor to slow the vessel, giving transit authorities time to stop traffic on the bridge before the accident occurred. Authorities said the move may have prevented a higher death toll.
It was unclear whether authorities also attempted to alert staff before the impact.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Homemandy told reporters as he prepared to board the ship that data collected from the ship would provide investigators with a timeline of events.
The process will include taking photos of the ship and bridge, obtaining electronic logs and interviewing first responders. The agency will also examine whether contaminated fuel contributed to the ship’s loss of power, she said.
Ship safety record
The Baltimore shipwreck has drawn attention to the ship’s safety record. In 2016, the ship was involved in an accident at the Belgian port of Antwerp, where it crashed into a pier while trying to leave a North Sea container terminal.
An inspection in Chile in 2023 found defects in “propulsion and auxiliary machinery,” according to the Equasis public website, which provides ship information.
But the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said in a statement that the ship passed two foreign port inspections in June and September 2023. The agency said the faulty fuel pressure gauge was corrected after an inspection in June 2023 before the ship left port.
Video footage on social media showed the ship hitting the 47-year-old foundation bridge in the dark, with the headlights of vehicles on the bridge clearly visible as it plunged into the water and the ship burst into flames.
According to management company Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, all 22 crew members on board are missing.
The Port of Baltimore handles more automobile freight than any other port in the United States — by 2022, it will handle more than 750,000 vehicles, as well as containerized and bulk cargo ranging from sugar to coal, according to port data.
Still, economists and logistics experts say they doubt the port closures will trigger a major U.S. supply chain crisis or a sharp rise in commodity prices, given the abundance of capacity at rival East Coast shipping hubs.
The collapse of the bridge also caused chaos on Baltimore’s roadways, forcing motorists to two other congested port crossings and complicating daily commutes and regional traffic detours for months and years to come.
Named after the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the bridge carries about 31,000 vehicles across the water every day and is a major route for motorists between New York and Washington to avoid downtown Baltimore. It opened in 1977.
Tuesday’s disaster may be the worst bridge collapse in the United States since 2007, when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis plunged into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
