“I need one of you on the south side, one of you on the north side, to stop all traffic on the Key Bridge.
There is a ship approaching that has just lost its way, so until we get it under control, we have to stop all traffic.”
A recording of emergency services broadcast by Broadcastify shows how authorities acted to prevent the loss of more lives in the collapse of Baltimore's largest bridge, the Francis Scott Key.
The authorities were responding to a high alert call (the protocol establishes that it be repeated three times,
“mayday, mayday, mayday”,
the word used in a serious emergency) from the ship
Dali,
flying the Singapore flag, as revealed by the governor of Maryland, Wes Moore.
Just a minute and a half after the order to block traffic, officers on the ground responded: “The entire bridge just collapsed.
Start, start whoever... everyone.
The whole bridge just fell,” a person is heard on the radio, clearly upset.
“Do we know what traffic was stopped?” they ask the agent.
“I can't get to the other side, sir.
The bridge has collapsed,” he answers.
Moore praised the officers' actions: “These people are heroes.
Last night they saved lives,” he said Tuesday.
The Dali, a container freighter almost 300 meters long and 48 meters wide, had left the port around one in the morning, local time (five hours more in mainland Spain) to undertake a 28-day journey towards the port of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, where it would have to arrive on April 22 by order of the Danish shipping company Maersk.
However, her voyage ended shortly after setting sail.
The investigation is still ongoing and the ship's black box will allow more conclusions to be drawn, but it does know that from the ship they warned the ground that they had lost control of the ship.
The ship's owner, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, later informed the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) that, "just before the incident, the
Dali
vessel had experienced a momentary loss of propulsion."
“As a result, it was unable to maintain the desired course and collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” the MPA explained in a statement in which it ensures that the ship had dropped its anchors as part of emergency procedures before its impact. with the bridge.
It also emphasizes that the cargo ship was under pilotage at the time of the incident, that is, with one or more port pilots in command.
Pilots help guide ships safely in and out of ports.
As the ship headed toward an infrastructure pillar, eight construction workers took advantage of the light traffic at night to undertake maintenance work, removing potholes in the asphalt.
They were workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico from the Brawner Builders firm.
They did not receive any warning in time to evacuate the bridge.
The ship was moving at a speed of about eight knots (about 15 kilometers per hour).
The ship changed direction at around 1:27 a.m. and headed directly toward the pillar for reasons not yet clarified.
As the ship approached the bridge, puffs of black smoke could be seen as the lights flickered on and off, another extreme awaiting investigation.
The bridge pillars did not have protections to stop the impact, which occurred about a minute later.
Six victims presumed dead
The enormous mass collided with the pillar, causing an enormous roar, at 1:28 a.m.
In just 30 seconds, practically the entire bridge had collapsed and turned into a shapeless mass of iron.
A section of the track was left on the deck of the ship.
Jayme Krause, 32, was working in a warehouse in front of the bridge when he heard the impact: “It's shocking;
“You have seen him here your whole life and one day he is no longer there.”
The last federal inspection, carried out last June, concluded that the infrastructure was in good condition.
“I don't know of any bridge that has been built to withstand the direct impact of a ship of this size,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The remains of the bridge created an artificial barrier to navigation, leading to the closure of the port, the city's economic engine.
The authorities have not been able to provide an estimate of when it will be able to reopen to maritime traffic.
With the bridge, the eight workers rushed into the dark and icy waters of the Patapsco River.
The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry confirmed that the two Guatemalan victims are a 26-year-old man from San Luis (Petén) and another 35-year-old man from Camotán (Chiquimula).
They had some work vehicles, which initially led the authorities to believe that some cars driving on the bridge had fallen into the water.
Rescuers managed to pull two people out of the water.
One was unharmed and refused care.
Another was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center and released hours later.
The other six disappeared.
The Coast Guard announced at 7:30 p.m. that it was suspending rescue efforts and considering them dead.
“Based on the time we have been searching, the search efforts we have made and the temperature of the water, at this time we do not believe that we will find these individuals alive.
So this afternoon at 7:30 we are suspending active search and rescue efforts,” the Coast Guard official said.
The ship is owned by Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd., which stated that all 22 crew members were safe, as were the two pilots.
An open investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation into the crash.
At the foot of the bridge, in the improvised open-air press center established for this purpose, the president of the NTSB indicated this Tuesday in a press conference that a team of 24 experts will investigate the nautical operations, the operation of the ship, the history of security, owners, operators, company policy and security management systems.
The MPA announced that investigators from Singapore's Transportation Safety Investigation Bureau and the MPA itself were going to Baltimore to assist with the investigation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sees no indication that this was an intentional act.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, himself endorsed it in his appearance: “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident.
“At this time, we have no other indication—no other reason to believe there was any intentional act here,” he stated.
Even so, the dark spots regarding the causes of the incident are fertile ground for conspiracy theories and suspicions.
The ship was inspected by Chilean Navy personnel from the port of San Antonio, located 114 kilometers west of Santiago de Chile, the country's main port in June 2023. The inspection detected a problem in the “propulsion and auxiliary machinery.” ” of the ship, according to Equasis, a shipping information system.
The deficiency affected gauges and thermometers and was repaired before setting sail.
This was one of 27 inspections that the vessel has undergone since its construction in 2015. The last inspection was carried out in September 2023 in New York, where no defects were found.
Between 1960 and 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, killing a total of 342 people, according to a 2018 report by the Global Water Transport Infrastructure Partnership cited by the AP. .
Of them, 18 were produced in the United States.
In 2002, a barge crashed into the Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, sending the vehicles plummeting into the water.
A total of 14 people were killed and 11 injured.
In 2001, a tugboat and barge collided with the Queen Isabella Causeway Bridge in Port Isabel, Texas, causing a section of the bridge to fall 80 feet into the bay.
Eight people died.
A high cost for insurers and reinsurers
The Dali is owned by Grace Ocean Pte. Ltd., managed by Synergy Marine Pte. Ltd. and is covered by The Britannia Steam Ship Insurance Association Ltd., or Britannia P&I Club.
Protection and compensation (P&I) clubs are mutual insurance companies that insure and pool the civil liability of the global maritime sector.
"Without a doubt, both marine insurers and reinsurers will be involved in this incident," said Loretta Worters, spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute at the market intelligence service of the firm S&P Global.
The value of the bridge itself could be around $1.2 billion;
It is not yet known whether the insured limit will fully cover the replacement, Worters said.
Chubb Ltd. is the bridge's primary insurer, but any claims will likely be subrogated to the shipowner's insurance.
The incident will most affect the International Group of P&I Associations, according to Worters, who said the group has significant reinsurance coverage, led by AXA XL.
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