A huge cargo ship, as big as a skyscraper, was getting dangerously close to a big Baltimore bridge. This Baltimore bridge is used by over 30,000 cars every day. The crew of the ship, named the Dali, quickly sent out a distress call, called a “mayday,” to try to stop a possible disaster on Tuesday.
Emergency responders quickly acted, stopping traffic on most lanes of the four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge. This happened just before a huge ship weighing 95,000 tons crashed into one of the bridge’s supports around 1:30 in the morning. The impact caused several parts of the bridge to bend and break, and this frightening event was recorded on video.
“Emergency! The entire bridge collapsed!” someone yelled on the radio.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore praised the quick actions of those who helped, calling them heroes and saying they saved lives. However, the damage caused by the disaster was huge, and it will likely affect the economy and travel along the East Coast for many months.
A big part of a 1.6-mile bridge collapsed, causing eight construction workers who were fixing potholes to fall into the cold waters of the Patapsco River. Two workers were saved, but one is badly hurt. Officials said on Tuesday night that they think the other six workers died, so they stopped searching. They will start looking again at 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
The collapse stopped ships from moving in and out of the Port of Baltimore, which is one of the biggest ports in the country. It also broke a part of the road called the Baltimore Beltway. This road is really important because it connects Washington and New York, two busy cities.
President Biden promised that the government will pay for the repairs and get them done fast.
The crash caused a lot of damage — the bridge was twisted, shipping containers were ripped open, and the cargo ship got stuck under the fallen debris. Officials compared it to something you might see in a movie to show how big the disaster was.
“This is a terrible event beyond imagination,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. The Key Bridge collapsing was completely unexpected. It felt like something you’d only see in a movie.
A video showed a crumpled piece of the old bridge on the front of the ship. The ship was carrying containers and had a big hole in its side. Helicopters flew above, and boats with flashing lights searched the water. Divers went underwater into the river, which is around 50 feet deep.
Moore mentioned that they looked into the wreck and it seemed like it was just an accident. The governor stated that the Dali ship had a problem with its power and couldn’t move properly before hitting the bridge. In a video, you could see the Dali’s lights flickering before the crash, and it looked like the ship was just floating without control.
Other government officials from both state and federal levels said they didn’t find any signs of terrorism or deliberate damage. Moore and Scott announced states of emergency, and the National Transportation Safety Board sent experts to investigate. They aim to find the voice and data recorders from the vessel.
Biden promised to use all the help we need to fix the bridge and get the Port of Baltimore working again. He said this during a speech to the nation. Pete Buttigieg, who is in charge of transportation, was there with leaders from Maryland. They promised to fix any problems with the supply chain caused by the port’s closure. Biden also said he plans to visit the area soon.
“I’m telling my team to work as hard as they can to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as quickly as they can.” Biden said.
Officials mentioned it’s too early to tell when these things might occur or how much they might cost.
Marquis Neal, who is 48 years old and lives near the bridge in Turner Station, said the accident woke him up suddenly.
Neal said, “It sounded like a really big bomb. The house shook a lot. The wind was strong, like a big rush of air. Then suddenly, it stopped. I wondered if it was an earthquake. But just five minutes later, we heard sirens everywhere. It was really chaotic.”
Neal, who goes over the bridge many times every day, thinks it’s super important for this small town. Almost everyone here used to work at Bethlehem Steel in Sparrows Point until it shut down.
“We cross that bridge every day,” Neal said. “It could have been you. It could have been anyone.”
Jesus Campos, who works for Brawner Builders in Cockeysville, Maryland, was worried about six of his coworkers who fell into the Patapsco River. He walked back and forth nervously at a meeting point in a Royal Farms parking lot.
Campos said he wasn’t working Monday night but was suddenly woken up around 5 a.m. by a coworker, who told him about the terrible accident. Campos, who only speaks Spanish, explained that the workers were taking a break to eat, sitting in or near their vehicles, when the bridge collapsed. He mentioned that all six of the men who are missing are Latino.
“I feel really sad,” Campos said in Spanish. “These people are like my work buddies and friends.”
Campos finds working on the bridge very scary. The construction teams are always afraid of cars going too fast, and the bridge shakes a lot because of how it’s built. But even with all that, Campos never thought the bridge would fall down.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated that the construction workers were employed by Brawner, and the company may also bring on additional workers. Jeffrey Pritzker, an executive at Brawner Builders, said the bridge collapse was unexpected and nobody could have foreseen it. He mentioned that seven employees from their company were working on the bridge overnight, with one surviving and six still missing. Authorities have said that eight victims were workers.
Pritzker expressed that the company is extremely displeased, families are profoundly saddened, and this event is truly terrible. “I’m not sure what else I can say.”
Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace told CNN on Tuesday that sonar detected five vehicles at the bottom of the Patapsco River: three cars, a cement truck, and one unknown vehicle. Officials later said they were still figuring out if the vehicles fell into the water and weren’t sure if anyone besides bridge workers were inside them.
The ship named Dali, flying the flag of Singapore, departed from the Port of Baltimore at around 1 a.m. It was heading towards Colombo, Sri Lanka, and was expected to reach there by April 22. This information comes from MarineTraffic, a platform that tracks marine data.
Clay Diamond, who leads the American Pilots’ Association, mentioned that the ship completely lost power around 1:20 a.m. This means it lost both engine and electrical power, including control and communication systems.
When the Dali ship lost power near the Port of Baltimore, the pilot in charge told the crew to turn the rudder strongly to the left and drop the left anchor. They did this to try to slow down the ship and prevent it from moving too much to the right.
The ship couldn’t get its engines working again, but a backup generator started up and brought back the electrical power. Since they couldn’t make the ship slow down, Diamond, the pilot with over ten years of experience, sent out an emergency message to close the bridge.
At about 1:24 in the morning, a security camera captured the lights on the Dali going out suddenly, which might mean there was a problem with the power. Just a minute later, the lights came back on. Then, shortly after, thick black smoke started coming out of a chimney, and it looked like the Dali started to turn to the right.
At 1:27 in the morning, the lights on the Dali ship turned off and then quickly turned back on, as seen in a video. Shortly after, there were messages on the radio about getting people off the Key Bridge. At 1:28 a.m., the Dali ship hit the bridge.
Moore said the boat was going around eight knots, which is about nine miles per hour, when it crashed into the bridge. Diamond mentioned that the person driving the boat talked to investigators from the Coast Guard and the NTSB.
Synergy Marine Group, the company that owned and managed the ship, stated in a news release that the Dali had two harbor pilots guiding it, as Maryland law requires. They also mentioned that all 22 sailors onboard, who were from India, were safe and unharmed. The sailors stayed on the ship as of Tuesday.
Wallace reported that rescue teams smelled diesel fuel at the scene, but Synergy claimed there was no proof that the accident had polluted the river. The company stated that it was working with authorities who were looking into the disaster.
Inspection records show that the ship named Dali had issues before. Last June, when inspectors checked the ship in San Antonio, Chile, they found a problem with its propulsion and other machinery. This information comes from a shipping regulator in the Asia-Pacific area.
The issue wasn’t big enough to hold the ship, as per the records. They checked again later that day and found that the ship, Dali, had fixed any problems it had, showing that they took care of the issue.
Since 2018, Synergy has been linked to three sea accidents where crew members died, according to reports from transportation safety agencies and government statements.
In 2018, a technician lost their life due to an elevator malfunction. In 2019, an officer fell overboard and died because they weren’t wearing a flotation device. tanker partly managed by Synergy that collided with a dredger, killing two seafarers.
Synergy, a company in Singapore, has almost 400 ships and over 14,000 sailors working for them, as stated on their website. When a reporter from The Washington Post visited their office in Singapore on Tuesday evening, it was closed and dark.
Moore stated that the Key Bridge met all safety standards when it collapsed. This bridge is an important part of I-695, which helps traffic move between Baltimore and Dundalk, Md. If the bridge is gone, it could create transportation problems in the area for a long time.
Back in the 1970s, they built a bridge that cost $60 million. People thought it was amazing because of its design. The American Society of Civil Engineers said it was one of the biggest truss bridges in the United States.
Ian Firth, a British engineer who designs bridges, said that the bridge was built when ships were smaller and there wasn’t as much traffic. Nowadays, we make bridges with better safety features. However, he pointed out that even if the bridge were new, it would still collapse if a big ship hit it at high speed.
Dan Frangopol, a professor who studies bridges and risks at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and also leads the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety, mentioned that the big collapse wasn’t unexpected.
“If the pier got wrecked, just like it did, then the bridge will fall down,” Frangopol explained. “There’s no way to shift the weight around to keep it up.”
