Bridge collapse in Baltimore | Search suspended, six people presumed dead

(Baltimore) Rescuers on Tuesday evening suspended searches around the Baltimore bridge which collapsed the previous night after being hit by a container ship, with American authorities estimating 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.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott spoke of “an inconceivable tragedy,” with 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, lights from maintenance vehicles can be seen on the bridge, before it buckled and fell apart, around 1:30 a.m. local time.

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.

“The whole bridge just collapsed”: in Baltimore emergency radio

“I need one of you on the south side, one on the north, stop all traffic on the Key Bridge!” », Says an operator on the region’s emergency radio network.

“There is a boat approaching that has lost its direction, so until it regains control, we have to block all traffic. »

A few seconds after a first message, another voice is heard in the crackles: “I have blocked all traffic”, visibly from one side of the bridge.

“Is there a team working on the bridge there? » someone asks.

“If we manage to block the entire passage, make sure that there is no one on the bridge there, I’m not sure… If there is a team up there, you can try to warn them Chief, we have to try to evacuate them temporarily,” the emergency radio still spits out in the tens of seconds before impact.

“10-4, when the other team arrives, I’m going to go up on deck. (…) When you arrive, I’m going to go there and pick up the workers on the Key Bridge,” says a member of the emergency services through the radio crackles.

Before the story changes.

A voice takes the microphone and announces, full of surprise. “The whole bridge just collapsed, start, start, anyone…everyone…the whole bridge collapsed.”

“Do we know if the entire passage was blocked? »

“I can’t go to the other side, sir!” », replies an annoyed voice, “the bridge has fallen”.