All shipping out of the Port of Baltimore is currently halted in the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Md., early Tuesday, the Maryland governor announced.
The Coast Guard is now leading recovery efforts after a container ship hit and collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Md., early Tuesday, the service announced in a Tuesday evening press conference.
As of Tuesday, six people are missing and now presumed dead. They are believed to be part of an eight-person construction crew that was working on the bridge, according to Baltimore officials. Two of the members of the crew were rescued.
At about 1:30 a.m., the Singapore-flagged container ship MV Dali, affiliated with Danish shipping giant Maersk, collided with the interstate bridge over the Patapsco River. When the collision occurred, Dali was just south of the Dundalk Marine Terminal heading into the Chesapeake Bay.
Video of the collision shows Dali hitting a support beam of the bridge and then large chunks of the bridge fall into the river. The Key Bridge is part of a daily commute, with about 30,000 people transiting the bridge daily, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told reporters Tuesday.
Dali is 985 feet long and is 95,000 gross tons, said National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. NTSB is leading the investigation into the ship’s crash with Coast Guard in support.
The crash is still under investigation, but Moore said during an earlier press conference that preliminary evidence suggests the crash was an accident not an act of terrorism.
The FBI has been involved in the investigation from the beginning, said William DelBagno, special agent in charge for the Baltimore field office.
At this time, there is no credible information to link the bridge collapse to terrorism, he said.
The FBI, like other federal partners, has provided resources to assist with the investigation and recovery, including underwater search services, DelBagno said.
Moore told reporters that the ship, traveling at 8 knots, issued a mayday call and warned it would likely hit the bridge.
Due to the mayday call, transportation officials were able to halt traffic, Moore said during the press conference.
“I have to say I’m thankful for the folks who once the point came up and notification came up, that there was a mayday. Who literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives. They saved lives last night.
During an earlier press conference on Tuesday, Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld said there were workers on the bridge at the time who were unaccounted for.
“This is an active search and rescue mission,” he told reporters.
The Coast Guard is coordinating the search and rescue efforts with local, state and federal agencies.
“Response boat crews from Coast Guard Stations Curtis Bay and Annapolis have crews deployed to the incident for active search and rescue,” reads a Tuesday morning statement from the Coast Guard.
“A Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and Coast Guard investigators and pollution responders are also en route to the incident.”
A Navy spokeswoman told USNI News Tuesday morning that the service had not been yet tasked to assist following the collapse of the Key bridge. On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been in touch with officials on the ground but there had not been a formal request for assistance as of Tuesday afternoon.
Dali was operated by Synergy Marine under contract from Maersk and carrying Maersk cargo, according to a report from Trade Winds. As of Tuesday, the container ship was lodged under the remains of the bridge.
The first priority is the search and rescue efforts for the six people, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin (D) said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference with Moore and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The second is opening up the channel and Port of Baltimore, which is closed due to the collapse.
There are at least three Military Sealift ships stuck in Baltimore, said Sal Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University. MARAD, which operates Military Sealift, did not respond to a call for comment as of publication.
It will likely be up to a month before those ships can get out, Mercogliano said, adding that while the ships are not necessarily needed at the moment, it could be an issue for the aging MST fleet as those ships provide a lot of capability.
The Port of Baltimore’s closure will likely have more of an effect on the coal industry as the U.S. uses the medium-sized port to export coal, Mercogliano said. The port is also used for the auto and sugar industries, but other ports can take on those while coal exportation requires specialized buildings, he said.
“It’s a big demonstration about the fragility of our infrastructure,” Mercogliano said. “It’s very easy unfortunately for an accident to take place – and I believe this to be an accident – to close off a major US port, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s really important to have a port strategy that has us relying on multiple ports, not just a few large ports.”
The last comparable bridge collapse, leading to a port closure, was the Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Fla., in 1980, Mercogliano said. But the Key Bridge, built in 1977, and its pilings and dolphins – which protect the bridge – were not built for impact from the large cargo vessels seen today, he said.
The NTSB will investigate the ship, which appeared to lose power before striking the bridge. Mercogliano said that it went through a Coast Guard investigation in September, but the professor raised concerns about staffing issues among the service and how it has affected their Port State Authority mission.
“The fear I have is that this vessel may have had a track record or a history of engine problems,” he said. “And it just got missed because we don’t inspect vessels as regularly as we need to. And the ships are really not under an obligation at times to detail if they’re having problems.”
The following is the complete Tuesday statement from the U.S. Coast Guard.
BALTIMORE — The U.S. Coast Guard is coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies in response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore Tuesday morning.
Coast Guard watchstanders received a report into the Coast Guard Sector Maryland – National Capital Region command center at 1:27 a.m. reporting a 948-foot Singapore-flagged containership collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Additionally, it was reported that the bridge collapsed and there were reports of persons in the water.
Response boat crews from Coast Guard Stations Curtis Bay and Annapolis have crews deployed to the incident for active search and rescue.
A Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and Coast Guard investigators and pollution responders are also en-route to the incident.
An Urgent Marine Information Broadcast is issued regarding the incident and there has been a 2000-yard safety zone issued for the surrounding waters. Mariners are urged to avoid the area.
