Two bodies discovered as recovery and rescue efforts progress after Baltimore bridge collapses
The bodies of two construction workers trapped in a red pickup truck were found Wednesday after a giant cargo ship filling a hole crashed into a bridge and collapsed in the cold waters of Baltimore Harbor. .
Maryland State Police announced the tragic discovery at a press conference, and sonar revealed more vehicles believed to be trapped in the concrete and twisted steel debris of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. He added that it was shown.
Six of the eight construction workers are believed to have died, and the bodies of four have yet to be found.
Police warned at a news conference that it was not safe for divers to try to enter the wreckage, and said they would move on to a salvage operation to remove the superstructure and send divers back in to retrieve the remaining bodies.
“Based on sonar scans, we believe the vehicle is engulfed by the superstructure and concrete that we witnessed tragically fall,” Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Roland Butler said at a news conference. Ta.
Federal investigators also revealed a detailed timeline of the tragedy based on preliminary findings from the ship's audio data recorder.
Marcel Muiz, chief investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a separate news conference that the container ship Dali, about 1,000 feet (300 meters) long and loaded with cargo, was on its way to Asia at 12 a.m. Tuesday. He said the ship departed in 39 minutes.
At 1:24 a.m., an alarm began to sound indicating a power problem on board the ship, and the pilot immediately radioed the port manager to inform them that the ship was heading for the bridge and requested a tugboat.
The call for help was heard by two Maryland Department of Transportation units who were on the bridge for road construction, closing all lanes and likely saving lives.
Muse told reporters that an audio data recorder picked up “sounds consistent with a collision” at 1:29 p.m.
Almost the entire steel structure, which is used by tens of thousands of motorists every day, collapsed within seconds, cascading down the ship's bow and blocking one of the nation's busiest trading ports.
There was no opportunity to evacuate the eight workers who were filling a hole in the interstate directly above the oncoming ship.
Butler named the two victims found Wednesday as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, a Mexican national who lived in Baltimore, and his co-worker Dorrian Ronial Castillo-Cabrera, who lived outside Dundalk. gave the name of the 26-year-old. I'm from Guatemala.
They were found in 25 feet of water, he said.
Two others were pulled alive from the water shortly after the collapse early Tuesday. One person was unharmed and the second was released from the hospital Wednesday, Butler said.
It is estimated that four more workers were killed and lost in the swirling currents, which tangled and collapsed heavily damaged bridges and steel towers.
– “Hardworking” men –
Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gauthier told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the ship, which remained entangled in debris, was “stable” and the mostly Indian crew remained on board as the investigation continued. “We are working very hard,'' he added.
The NTSB said 23 people, including two pilots, were on board at the time of the crash.
According to the agency, 56 containers containing hazardous materials were on board the ship, and some of them were damaged after the bridge fell, leaving a glossy surface on the water.
Gauthier insisted the ship poses no danger to the environment. Two other containers were lost overboard, out of a total of 4,700 containers, he said.
Officials said the missing workers are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
“They are all hard-working, humble people,” said Jesús Campos, a colleague of the eight workers employed by contractor Browner Builders.
One of those now presumed dead was Miguel Luna, a father of three, according to Casa, a nonprofit organization serving immigrant communities.
Casa said Luna, who is from El Salvador, left for work at 6:30 p.m. Monday and never returned.
His wife, María del Carmen Castellón, told Telemundo 44 that she was “devastated” by the wait for information.
– Busy ports are blocked –
The ship had passed two overseas inspections in 2023, maritime authorities in Singapore, where the ship is registered, said on Wednesday, adding that the fault monitoring instruments were fixed in June.
The Port of Baltimore is the ninth busiest major U.S. port in terms of both foreign cargo volume and foreign cargo value, and directly employs more than 15,000 people and employs nearly 140,000 more. I support you.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the impact on supply chains was “certainly not insignificant,” adding that it was “premature” to know when ports would reopen.
“Rebuilding will not be quick, it will not be easy, it will not be cheap,” he warned.
Source: guardian.ng