Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapses after being struck by a ship

Rescuers on Tuesday evening suspended searches around the Baltimore bridge which collapsed the previous night after being hit by a container ship, with US authorities believing that the six missing people were now presumed dead.

“Based on the length of the search carried out…, the temperature of the water, at this time we do not estimate that we will find these individuals still alive,” said Coast Guard Vice Admiral Shannon Gilreath at a press conference.

Since the spectacular collapse of the important Francis Scott Key highway bridge in the strategic port of Baltimore, on the American east coast, the authorities have deployed numerous means by air, on land, at sea and even underwater, finding two survivors, one seriously injured.

But Tuesday evening, faced with the difficult conditions, “the tide and the currents which make the work of divers dangerous”, “we are going to suspend the active research phase”, said Shannon Gilreath.

“We are simply moving to a new phase” of relief, he added, with another official specifying that divers would be on site from the early hours of Wednesday.

The latter are apparently public works workers who were working on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed, with an official from their company telling the local press that six of them were presumed dead.

Two Guatemalans are among eight people initially reported missing, authorities in the Central American country said.

The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, spoke of “an inconceivable tragedy”, with the police saying they ruled out a terrorist act a priori.

Inaugurated in 1977

The toll of this “terrible accident”, in the words of President Joe Biden, would have been worse if the ship, which suffered a “momentary loss of propulsion”, had not managed to launch a distress call.

This alert allowed the authorities to cut off part of the road traffic.

Impressive video surveillance images show the container ship MV Dali veering off course and hitting a pile of this bridge inaugurated in 1977, causing several arches to collapse in the port.

In these videos, we see lights from maintenance vehicles on the bridge, before it buckles and falls apart, around 1:30 a.m.

The crew, unhurt, quickly tried to slow down their course by dropping anchor, without succeeding in avoiding the collision.

“The whole bridge just collapsed!” Start, start, anyone… everyone…”, an operator called on the emergency radio frequency in the seconds following the fall.

Jennifer Woolf almost lost her 20-year-old son in the disaster. He took the bridge three minutes before the tragedy. “He came home in panic, crying, shaking,” the 41-year-old American, met at a gas station that had become a crossroads for emergency services and shocked residents, told AFP.

Joe Biden pledged that the bridge would be rebuilt, admitting that it would take time. Wanting to get ahead of the insurers, the president said he wanted “the federal state to pay the entire cost of reconstruction”.

Crucial road axis

Because the issue is economic: this four-lane bridge, 2.6 km long, is located on a north-south axis crucial to the economy of the east coast of the United States.

And with access to the port blocked by debris from the bridge, maritime transport there is “suspended until further notice,” authorities said.

Transport Minister Pete Buttigieg warned of a “major and prolonged impact on supply chains”.

The MV Dali is a recent container ship, 300 meters long and 48 meters wide, flying the Singaporean flag, and which was sailing towards Sri Lanka.

It was operated by shipping company Synergy Group and chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk.

Chilean port authorities reported a defect in the ship’s machinery in 2023, an anomaly quickly repaired by the shipowner according to the Chilean navy.

Jennifer Homendy, head of the US Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB), explained to the press from Baltimore that the container ship’s data recorders represented “a crucial piece of the investigation”, carried out with the Coast Guard. . According to her, they should be picked up on Wednesday “or maybe this evening” Tuesday.

The head of the investigation office said she had spoken with her counterpart from Singapore, who should come to Baltimore in the coming days as well as officials from the city-state’s port authorities.

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