BALTIMORE — A cargo ship lost power and collided with a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, destroying the span in a short amount of time and causing it to fall into the river in a terrifying collapse that may disrupt an important shipping port for months. Six people were missing and presumed dead.
The ship’s crew sent out a distress signal just before the crash destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge, allowing authorities to reduce vehicle traffic on the span, Maryland’s governor said.
The ship hit one of the bridge’s supports, leading the structure to collapse like a toy. A part of the span landed on the front of the vessel, which caught fire.
As the ship was speeding very quickly toward the bridge, authorities were able to prevent cars from crossing the bridge just in time, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.
“These people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives last night.”
The crash occurred in the middle of the night, long before the busy morning commute on the 1.6-mile bridge, which was used by 12 million vehicles last year.
The six people who are still missing were part of a construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge, according to Paul Wiedefeld, the state’s transportation secretary.
A senior executive at the company that employed the workers said on Tuesday afternoon that they were presumed dead, considering the water’s depth and the time that had passed since the crash.
Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, stated that the crew was working in the middle of the bridge when it collapsed. No bodies have been found, and rescuers continued the search into the late afternoon.
“This was so completely unexpected,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say. We take great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers.”
Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for Brawner Builders and knows members of the crew, mentioned that he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks when the bridge collapsed.
“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.”
Rescuers pulled two people out of the water. One person was treated at a hospital and released hours later. Several vehicles also went into the river, but authorities did not believe anyone was inside.
“It looked like something out of an action movie,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said, calling it “an unthinkable tragedy.”
A police dispatcher announced that a ship had lost its steering and asked officers to stop all traffic on the bridge, according to Maryland Transportation Authority first responder radio traffic obtained from the Broadcastify.com archive, just before the collapse.
One officer who stopped traffic reported that he was going to drive onto the bridge to alert the construction crew. But moments later, a frantic officer said: “The whole bridge just fell down. Start, start whoever, everybody … the whole bridge just collapsed.”
On a different radio channel for people who fix and build things, someone mentioned that officers were stopping traffic because a ship had lost the ability to steer. There was no further instruction to leave, and 30 seconds later the bridge fell and the communication channel went quiet.
Between 1960 and 2015, there were 35 significant bridge collapses around the world caused by ships or barges crashing into them, as stated by the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
A very difficult and complicated situation
The collapse will definitely cause a very difficult and complicated situation for months, and maybe even years, along the East Coast. It will stop ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore, which is a major hub for shipping. The accident will also cause problems for cargo and commuter traffic.
“Losing this bridge will cause a lot of damage to the entire area, as well as the entire East Coast,” said Maryland state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling.
Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary, speaking at a news conference near the location, mentioned that it was too early to estimate how long it will take to clear the channel, which is about 50 feet deep.
“I do not know of a bridge that has been built to resist a direct impact from a vessel of this size,” he said.
Synergy Marine Group — which manages the ship, called the Dali — verified that the vessel hit a support of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m. while being guided by one or more pilots, who are local experts who help safely guide vessels in and out of ports. The ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd.
Synergy stated that all crew members and the two pilots on board were verified to be present, and there were no reports of any injuries.
The ship was moving at 8 knots, approximately 9 mph, the governor said.
Pointed pieces of the bridge could be observed sticking up from the surface of the water. The entrance abruptly ended where the bridge used to start.
'It felt like an earthquake'
Donald Heinbuch, a retired chief with Baltimore’s fire department, mentioned that 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 riverside 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 crosses the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbor, 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 mentioned that all boat traffic into and out of the port would be stopped until further notice, though the facility was still open to trucks.
Biden responds
President Joe Biden said he planned to travel to Baltimore and intends for the federal government to pick up the entire cost of rebuilding.
“This is going to take some time,” Biden said.
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 long and about 157 feet wide, according to the website.
Inspectors discovered an issue with the Dali’s machinery in June, but a more recent examination did not identify any shortcomings, according to the shipping information system Equasis.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.
The state reported that the Port of Baltimore handled a record 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo valued at $80 billion last year.
A leader of a company managing the supply chain warned that Americans may experience shortages of goods due to the impact of the ocean container shipping and East Coast trucking collapse.
Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, mentioned that the impact will not only be on the port of Baltimore.
Judah Levine, head of research for global freight booking platform Freightos, stated that the collapse may not have much effect on worldwide trade because Baltimore is not a major port for container vessels, but its facilities are more important for goods like farm equipment and autos.
