Rescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the coast guard said, as efforts have switched to looking for bodies of the missing and more answers to why a container ship smashed into the span.
Search divers were expected to return near dawn to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the bridge in Baltimore Harbor to search for six workers missing and now presumed dead.
The disaster has forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the US Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.
As the odds of their survival vanished, the search for the missing workers was suspended on Tuesday evening, 18 hours after they were thrown from the fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge into the frigid waters at the mouth of the Patapsco River.
"We do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals alive," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a briefing.
"We are going to suspend the active search and rescue efforts.
"Coast Guard is not going away. None of our partners are going away, but we're just going to transition to a different phase."
Maryland State Police and US Coast Guard officials said diminished visibility and increasingly treacherous currents in the wreckage-strewn channel made continued search efforts on the river too risky to continue overnight.
State Police Colonel Roland Butler said authorities hoped to return divers to the water after sunrise on Wednesday in an effort to recover the workers' remains.
Starting at 6am on Wednesday, "we're hoping to put divers in the water and begin a more detailed search to do our very best to recover those six missing people," he said.
The ship's crew issued a mayday call moments before the crash took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, enabling authorities to limit vehicle traffic on the span, Maryland's governor said.
President Joe Biden directs federal government to 'move heaven and earth' to rebuild collapsed Baltimore bridge. – AP
The ship struck one of the bridge's supports, causing the structure to collapse like a toy. The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.
With the ship barreling toward the bridge at "a very, very rapid speed," authorities had just enough time to stop cars from coming over the bridge, Maryland Governor Wes Moore said.
"These people are heroes," Moore said. "They saved lives last night."
The crash happened in the middle of the night, long before the busy morning commute on the bridge that stretches 1.6 miles (2.6km) and was used by 12 million vehicles last year.
Rescuers pulled two other workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one of them was hospitalised. The six presumed to have perished included workers from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Mexican Consulate in Washington.
Officials said all eight were part of a work crew repairing potholes on Key Bridge's road surface when the Singapore-flagged container vessel Dali, leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka, plowed into a support pylon of the bridge at about 1:30am.
US Coast Guard and Maryland State Police officials said that based on the frigid temperature of the water and the length of time that had elapsed since the bridge came down there was little if any chance that the six missing could be found alive.
A senior executive at the company that employed the workers said that they were presumed dead, given the water’s depth and the length of time since the crash.
A container ship lost power and caused a major bridge collapse in Baltimore. – AP
Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said the crew was working in the middle of the bridge when it came down. No bodies have been recovered, and rescue crews continued the search into the late afternoon.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say.
"We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”
Guatemala’s consulate in Maryland said in a statement that two were Guatemalan citizens working on the bridge. It did not provide their names but said consular officials were in contact with local authorities and assisting the families.
Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for Brawner Builders and knows members of the crew, said he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks when the bridge went down.
“I know that a month ago, I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass,” Campos said. “Imagine knowing that is falling. It is so hard, one would not know what to do.”
Maryland Governor meets families of missing workers from Baltimore bridge collapse. – AP
Father Ako Walker, a Roman Catholic priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus, said he spent time with the families of the missing workers as they waited for news of their loved ones.
“You can see the pain etched on their faces,” Walker said.
The six presumed to have perished included workers from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Mexican Consulate in Washington.
Multiple vehicles also went into the water, although authorities did not believe anyone was inside.
"It looked like something out of an action movie," said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, calling it "an unthinkable tragedy."
A police dispatcher put out a call just before the collapse saying a ship had lost its steering and asked officers to stop all traffic, according to Maryland Transportation Authority first responder radio traffic obtained from the Broadcastify.com archive.
One officer who stopped traffic radioed that he was going to drive onto the bridge to alert the construction crew. But seconds later, a frantic officer said:
"The whole bridge just fell down. Start, start whoever, everybody ... the whole bridge just collapsed."
On a separate radio channel for maintenance and construction workers, someone said officers were stopping traffic because a ship had lost steering. There was no follow-up order to evacuate, and 30 seconds later the bridge collapsed and the channel went silent.
Major collapse of bridge due to ship impact 'extremely unusual' expert says. – Reuters
National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said a team of 24 investigators and other agency personnel were on the scene but holding off on boarding the ship as search-and-rescue operations continued. She said personnel from Singapore safety agencies would arrive in Baltimore on Wednesday.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the path to rebuilding the collapsed Baltimore bridge won’t be easy or quick.
“This is no ordinary bridge. This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure,” he said. “It has been part of the skyline for this region for longer than many of us have been alive.”
Buttigieg thanked first responders, including those still in the water as he spoke, and offered comfort to those “who woke up today to the news that no one wants to receive”.
“This is an excruciating day for several families,” he said.
He added that the closure of the port would have a "major and protracted impact to supply chains."
The Port of Baltimore handles more automobile freight than any other US port - more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to port data, as well as container and bulk cargo ranging from sugar to coal. Still, economists and logistics experts said they doubted the port closure would unleash a major US supply chain crisis or major spike in the price of goods, due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs along the Eastern Seaboard.
Governor Moore said he’s spent time with the families of victims. “The strength of these families is absolutely remarkable,” he said.
UK structural engineer explains why he thinks Baltimore bridge collapsed. – Reuters
From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collision, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
The collapse is almost sure to create a logistical nightmare for months, if not years, along the East Coast, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore, a major shipping hub. The accident will also snarl cargo and commuter traffic.
"Losing this bridge will devastate the entire area, as well as the entire East Coast," Maryland state Senator Johnny Ray Salling said.
Highway signs as far south as Virginia warned drivers of delays associated with the bridge.
Authorities said sonar had detected vehicles in the water, which is about 50 feet (15 meters) deep. The water temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) before dawn Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sunrise reveals damage to Baltimore bridge after being rammed by container ship. – AP
Synergy Marine Group – which manages the ship, called the Dali – confirmed the vessel hit a pillar of the bridge at about 1:30am local time while in control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely into ports. The ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd.
Synergy said all crew members and the two pilots on board were accounted for, and there were no reports of any injuries.
The ship was moving at 8 knots, roughly 9mph (14.8km/h), the governor said.
Jagged remnants of the bridge could be seen jutting up from the water's surface. The on-ramp ended abruptly where the span once began.
Donald Heinbuch, a retired chief with Baltimore's fire department, said he was startled awake by a deep rumbling that shook his house for several seconds. "It felt like an earthquake," he said.
He drove to the river's edge and couldn't believe what he saw.
"The ship was there, and the bridge was in the water, like it was blown up," he said.
The bridge spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbour, which leads to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1977, the bridge is named for the writer of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Wiedefeld said all vessel traffic into and out of the port would be suspended until further notice, though the facility was still open to trucks.
US President Joe Biden said he planned to travel to Baltimore "as quickly as I can" and that he intends for the federal government to pick up the entire cost of rebuilding the bridge.
"This is going to take some time," Biden said. "The people of Baltimore can count on us, though, to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt."
The FBI was on the scene and said there was no credible information to suggest terrorism.
The Dali cargo vessel which crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge causing it to collapse in Baltimore. – Reuters
Jayme Krause, 32, was working a night shift on shore when the cart of packages in front of her shook violently in what sounded like an intense thunderstorm.
A co-worker at an Amazon logistics facility told her the bridge had collapsed and she ran out to look.
"I went over there, and sure as anything, it was gone, the whole bridge was just like, there was nothing there," she said. "It was a shocking sight to see."
The Francis Scott Key bridge serves as the main thoroughfare for motorists between New York and Washington seeking to avoid downtown Baltimore. It was one of three ways to cross the Baltimore Harbor, with a traffic volume of 31,000 cars per day or 11.3 million vehicles a year.
The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic. The container ship is about 985 feet (300 meters) long and about 157 feet (48 meters) wide, according to the website.
A vessel carrying four giant shipping cranes passes under the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in 2012. – AP
The Balitmore wreck drew attention to the vessel's safety record. The same ship was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.
An inspection in 2023 carried out in Chile found "propulsion and auxiliary machinery" deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.
But Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority said in a statement that the vessel passed two separate foreign-port inspections in June and September 2023. It said a faulty fuel pressure gauge was rectified before the vessel departed the port following its June 2023 inspection. A more recent examination didn't identify any deficiencies, according to the shipping information system Equasis.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel. No Maersk crew and personnel were on board.
"We are horrified by what has happened in Baltimore, and our thoughts are with all of those affected," Maersk said.
More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore port including small cargo ships, tug boats and pleasure craft, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic showed. At least 30 other ships had signalled their destination was Baltimore, the data showed.
Last year, the Port of Baltimore handled a record 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo worth $80 billion, according to the state.
MOMENT: Baltimore bridge collapses after cargo ship impact. – Reuters
The head of a supply chain management company said Americans should expect shortages of goods from the effect of the collapse on ocean container shipping and East Coast trucking.
"It's not just the port of Baltimore that's going to be impacted," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport.
The collapse, though, is not likely to hurt worldwide trade because Baltimore is not a major port for container vessels, but its facilities are more important when it comes to goods such as farm equipment and autos, said Judah Levine, head of research for global freight booking platform Freightos.
What do we know about Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge?
- The Francis Scott Key Bridge spanning the Patapsco River is named after the author of the Star Spangled Banner, who was inspired to write the words in 1814 after witnessing the British defeat at the Battle of Baltimore.
- The 1.6 mile outer crossing of the Baltimore Harbor opened in March 1977 as the final link in I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway).
- Other structures along the route include a 0.64-mile dual-span drawbridge over Curtis Creek and two .74-mile parallel bridge structures that carry traffic over Bear Creek, near Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant.
- The bridge, at an estimated cost of $110 million, allowed for more traffic lanes and carried lower operating and maintenance costs than a tunnel.
Timeline of the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge
- 1:04am: Loaded with shipping containers, Dali departs from Baltimore’s port, headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- 1:24am: Dali slowly approaches the Key Bridge, according to video captured by StreamTime Live.
- 1:24.33am: Dali appears to suffer a total power failure as all its lights go out.
- 1:25.31am: About a minute later, the ship’s lights flicker back on. Black smoke starts rising from somewhere aboard the ship.
- 1:26.37am: The ship’s lights go dark again.
- 1:27am: Dali appears to collide with one of the Key Bridge’s piers. The US Coast Guard receives first report of collision.
- 1:27.10am: The ship’s lights come back on.
- 1:28.48am: The roadway of the Key Bridge begins collapsing.
- 1:29.00am: Most of the bridge’s span plunges beneath the water
- 1:40am: Baltimore City Fire Department dispatches rescue teams to the Patapsco River, with reports of multiple people in the water.
- 1:50am: The first fire unit arrives on the scene.