Baltimore officials are rushing to rescue 20 people who plunged into the Patapsco River after a Singaporean-flagged cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge at 1:30 a.m.
Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning after the catastrophic collision that occurred at 1:30 am.
The ship, the Singapore-flagged Dali, had been sailing for 20 minutes when it struck a support column on the bridge.
What led to the crash remains unclear. Video shows the ship going dark seconds before the collision, indicating there was a power outage on board. The 22 crew members remain on board and are now being questioned by the Coast Guard.
In the meantime, Maryland authorities are using sonar detection equipment to search for the vehicles that plunged into the 47F water.
Among the missing are members of a construction crew who were carrying out ‘concrete repairs’ on the bridge at the time.
Officials in Baltimore are racing to rescue 20 people who plunged into the Patapsco River after a Singaporean freighter crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge
The Maryland Department of Transportation said there is an active search and rescue mission as of 7:30 a.m
Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning after the catastrophic collision around 1:30 a.m.
Stunning footage shows the moment the ship plowed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending the colossal steel structure plunging into the Patapsco River.
The bridge spans 9,000 feet over the Patapsco River and is 180 feet above the water
The Maryland Department of Transportation said there is an active search and rescue mission as of 7:30 a.m.
Initial reports indicate that at least a dozen cars entered the 47-degree water, in addition to about two dozen construction workers who were carrying out concrete repair work on the bridge at the time. At the time of the crash, workers were pouring concrete on the bridge.
At the first news conference around 6:30 a.m., Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace could only confirm that two people had been pulled from the water. One was unharmed, while the other had to be rushed to a local hospital with ‘serious injuries’.
The FBI has ruled out terrorism as the cause of the crash.
It was not immediately clear what caused the freighter to crash into the bridge well before busy morning traffic in a major U.S. city just outside Washington called a “developing mass casualty event.”
According to an early report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the container ship “lost propulsion” as it left port.
“The vessel notified the MD Department of Transportation (MDOT) that it had lost control of the vessel and that a collision with the bridge was possible,” the report said. ‘The ship hit the bridge and completely collapsed.’
The ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to break and buckle at several points and tumble into the water within seconds – a shocking sight that was captured on video and posted to social media. The barrel caught fire and thick, black smoke came out.
The rescue effort involves Coast Guard vessels, local police boats, the Baltimore Fire Department, volunteer fire departments from surrounding areas and teams of divers as the desperate search for survivors continues.
An explosion appeared to have occurred on the container ship when it collided with the bridge, sending containers and diesel into the water. One of the vehicles that fell into the water was a tractor-trailer.
The ship involved is the 300-meter Dali, a Singapore-flagged container that was seen on ship-tracking websites quietly placed under the bridge after the crash.
It left the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore at 12:24 a.m. and at 1:25 a.m., began to slow and was diverted from its course. The video shows the lights on board going out just before the crash.
The Dali ship was bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is unclear what cargo it contained. The ship was scheduled to land in Asia on April 27.
According to the ship’s owners, all crew members have been reported and no injuries have been reported.
About 30,000 vehicles use the bridge, which is named after the writer of the Star Spangled Banner, every day. It opened in 1977.
Sonar has indicated vehicles in the water, where the temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit in the early hours of Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Earlier, Kevin Cartwright, communications director for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press that several vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse, including one the size of a semi-trailer truck.
The bridge collapsed in the middle of the night, when traffic would be lighter than during the day, when thousands of cars cross the span.
In 2001, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in a tunnel in downtown Baltimore and caught fire, sending black smoke into surrounding neighborhoods and forcing officials to temporarily close all major roads into the city.
