Two bodies recovered after bridge drama in Baltimore, no hope left for other four missing

Video/updateDivers recovered two bodies from the water at the collapsed road bridge in the port of the American city of Baltimore on Wednesday. The authorities announced this. Four people are still missing.

Harmke de Vries, Caspar Naber

Mar 27 2024

Latest update:
27-03-24, 23:49

It is believed that the six men were repairing holes in the road surface of the 2.6 kilometer long bridge at the time the bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning local time after a container ship rammed into one of the main concrete pillars. The workers come from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, an official said during a press briefing on Wednesday. A total of eight workers fell about 56 meters into the Patapsco River with a water temperature of 8 degrees Celsius. Two of them could still be saved. One was unharmed, the other seriously injured.

There is no longer any chance of finding survivors, the coast guard reported on Tuesday evening. The US Coast Guard therefore suspended the large-scale search with boats and helicopters. Since Wednesday morning, only divers have been searching for bodies in the 15-meter deep waters around the twisted steel of the bridge sections.

The authorities also assume that five vehicles also ended up in the water, including a concrete mixer. In any case, a vehicle was spotted with sonar.

Which bridge is this?

It concerns the Francis Scott Key Bridge, built in 1977, over which approximately 31,000 vehicles drove daily. On Tuesday around 1:30 a.m. local time (6:30 a.m. Dutch time), the first reports came in that a ‘large vessel’ had collided with the steel bridge.

According to reports, the Singaporean-flagged container ship Dali was ABC shortly before became adrift. The Port Authority of Singapore said on Tuesday afternoon that the ship “lost its propulsion” and was therefore unable to keep course. The crew lowered the ship’s anchors as part of emergency procedures and warned authorities that a collision appeared unavoidable.

According to the governor of the state of Maryland, after the distress call from the 300 meter long and 48 meter wide ship, transport authorities saved lives by preventing traffic from using the bridge. Anchoring gave the authorities time to clear the bridge.

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Half an hour on the road

The ship itself is said to be damaged and leaking oil. The Dali, operated by Singaporean maritime services provider Synergy Marine Group, had the Sri Lankan capital Colombo as its final destination. The container giant was only 30 minutes into a 27-day journey.

Security investigators have seized the ship’s black box, which can tell them more about the container ship’s position, speed, course, radar data, bridge and radio communications as well as alarms. All crew members have now been contacted, according to the Synergy Marine Group. According to the maritime service provider, there were no injuries and there was no pollution after the collision.

The same ship was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp in 2016, when its stern struck a quay while leaving the North Sea container terminal. The damage was limited at the time, both to the ship and the quay. During a June 2023 inspection carried out in the port of San Antonio, Chile, the ship showed defects in “propulsion and auxiliary machinery”, according to data on maritime safety site Equasis.

$600 million

US President Joe Biden calls it ‘a terrible accident’. He promised to visit Baltimore soon and said that the port, one of the most important in the United States, must be reopened to shipping as soon as possible. Broken bridge sections now block access. The Port of Baltimore handles more cars and light trucks than other U.S. ports.

Biden also said he wants the federal government to pay for the bridge’s reconstruction. The costs are, according to initial estimates, 600 million dollars (more than 554.4 million euros). The Department of Transportation can award emergency relief funds that typically amount to a few million dollars. To replace the bridge, Congress would have to approve funding. This happened before after the collapse of a bridge in Minnesota in 2007, when Congress allocated $250 million for reconstruction.

Rebuilding the Baltimore traffic bridge could be a lengthy process and will depend on whether the remaining structure can be salvaged. The bridge took five years to build, from 1972 to 1977. According to economic analysis firm Implan, closing the Port of Maryland for just one month would cost $28 million in lost revenue. The software company warns that insurers could face billions of dollars in claims from businesses due to outages and lost business.

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The Dali near the wreckage of the bridge. © Getty Images

Car supply threatens to suffer consequences
The US automotive manufacturing supply chain is at risk of being disrupted by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This was reported by the financial news agency Bloomberg.

“It is a large port with a lot of transit,” said John Lawler, the financial director of the American car giant Ford. “We will have to divert parts through other ports on the east coast or elsewhere in the country.” Competitor General Motors also says it is working to divert ships carrying parts that would come to the port of Baltimore. The port is currently closed.

The port of Baltimore has been the most important in the United States for the vehicle trade for years. Last year, almost 847,000 cars and light trucks passed through. European car manufacturers such as BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes are also active in and around the port.