Six presumed dead after crippled cargo ship knocks down Baltimore bridge

The Star

Six workers were missing and presumed dead from a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore Harbor early on Tuesday (March 26) when a massive cargo ship crippled by a power loss rammed into the structure, forcing closure of one of the busiest ports on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/cjdax9bt  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Six workers are missing and presumed dead after a bridge collapsed in Baltimore Harbor

00:05 early Tuesday.

00:06 The collapse occurred when a massive cargo ship, crippled by a power loss, rammed into

00:10 the structure.

00:11 At this point, as the Admiral said, we're going away from the search and rescue portion

00:16 to a recovery operation.

00:18 The changing conditions out there have made it dangerous for the first responders, the

00:23 divers in the water.

00:24 We will still have surface ships out overnight.

00:27 At 0600 hours tomorrow, we're hoping to put divers in the water and begin a more detailed

00:33 search to do our very best to recover those six missing people.

00:38 Maryland Police Colonel Roland Butler on Tuesday explained that due to the frigid water temperatures

00:43 and the amount of time that has passed, there is little to no chance of finding the missing

00:47 workers alive.

00:49 We're doing our very best in some very difficult times and difficult conditions, which is why

00:54 we're making that transition now.

00:56 The last thing we want to do is put divers in the water with changing currents, low temperatures,

01:02 very poor visibility, and so much metal and other unknown objects in the water.

01:10 All it takes is one object to strike an individual and all of a sudden we have a first responder

01:15 trying to recover another first responder.

01:18 I think at 0600 we'll find ourselves in a better position to understand the dynamics

01:22 of what we're dealing with and to address the issue in a much safer manner.

01:27 As I said, we have to cease operations.

01:29 We can't start again until we can assure the safety of those divers and the rescue personnel

01:34 that are going to participate in this.

01:37 If we look at how challenging it is at a simple motor vehicle crash to extract an individual,

01:44 I'm sure we can all imagine how much harder it is to do it in clement weather, when it's

01:49 cold, under the water, with very limited to no visibility.

01:54 The Singapore-flagged container vessel, the DALI, was heading out of Baltimore Harbour

01:58 bound for Sri Lanka when it struck a support pylon of the Francis Scott Quay Bridge over

02:03 the mouth of the Patapsco River at about 1.30am.

02:08 Rescuers were able to pull two survivors to safety, one of whom was hospitalized.

02:13 The survivors and the six missing workers were part of a crew performing road maintenance

02:17 on the bridge.

02:19 US President Joe Biden said he will visit Baltimore as soon as possible and has pledged

02:24 that the federal government will cover the full cost of rebuilding the bridge.

02:28 For more information visit www.fema.gov

02:30 For more information visit www.fema.gov

02:32 For more information visit www.fema.gov

02:34 For more information visit www.fema.gov

02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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