The Latest on the ship crash that collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore (all times local):
One truck has been recovered from the water, but at least one vehicle remains hanging from the metal, according to a Homeland Security memo that was described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official.
The official was not authorized to discuss details of the document or the investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday praised divers who have spent hours in frigid water.
“They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them,” he said. “They are trying to navigate mangled metal and they’re also in a place it is now presumed that people have lost their lives, so the work of these first responders, the work of these divers, I cannot stress enough how remarkable these individuals are.”
— Colleen Long and Brian Witte
Currently:
— Police had about 90 seconds to stop traffic before Baltimore bridge fell. 6 workers are feared dead
— What we know about the Baltimore bridge collapse
— Baltimore bridge collapse and port closure send companies scrambling to reroute cargo
— Named for ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ author, Key Bridge was part of Baltimore’s identity
— Who was Francis Scott Key, whose namesake bridge fell?
— A list of major US bridge collapses caused by ships and barges
— Live Updates at APNews.com
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com
More of the latest:
Maryland lawmakers are drafting emergency legislation to help workers affected by the bridge collapse.
State Sen. Bill Ferguson, the Senate president, said he and a fellow Democratic lawmaker, Del. Luke Clippinger, are proposing income replacement for the thousands of workers who rely on daily operations at the Port of Baltimore. He said he spent hours Tuesday talking to dock workers, business owners and others.
“The human cost of lives lost yesterday is overwhelming and tragic,” Ferguson posted Wednesday on X. “The economic and stability loss to the thousands impacted in the days ahead cannot be understated.”
Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, also noted Wednesday morning the importance of the Port of Baltimore to the nation’s economy, saying the shutdown is affecting everyone from farmers in Kentucky to auto dealers in Michigan.
“It’s imperative that we get the Port of Baltimore back up and going, and it is not just about how we’re supporting Maryland,” Moore said. “This is about how we’re supporting the American economy.”
Among the six missing and presumed dead after the bridge collapse are people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries.
Guatemala’s consulate in Maryland confirmed that two of the missing were Guatemalan citizens working on the bridge. Mexico’s Washington consulate also confirmed in a statement posted on X that Mexican citizens were among the missing but did not say how many.
The Honduran man was identified as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval by that country’s deputy foreign affairs minister.
Father Ako Walker, a Catholic priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus, said outside a vigil that he spent time with the families of the workers as they waited for news of their loved ones.
“You can see the pain etched on their faces,” Walker said.
— The item above has been updated to correct a name spelling to Sandoval, instead of Sandova.
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy says investigators expect to have more information Wednesday on the timeline of events after information from a ship data recorder was sent to an agency lab.
Homendy says in an interview with WBAL-TV that the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the ship Tuesday and downloaded the voyage data recorder. It has been sent to the NTSB’s lab, and she says they expect to have information Wednesday on the timeline.
If the weather allows, Homendy says, investigators will board the ship to look for electronics and documentation. Their focus will be on collecting evidence.
Homendy said she hopes to have substantial information for the public later Wednesday.
Recovery efforts have resumed at the collapse site.
Divers returned to the site early Wednesday after challenging overnight conditions improved. Maryland State Police spokesperson Elena Russo said in a text message that “recovery efforts are underway.”
The six people unaccounted for and presumed dead were part of a construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge.
All six workers missing after a Baltimore bridge collapsed Tuesday are presumed dead and the search for them has been suspended until Wednesday morning.
Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent for Maryland State Police, said Tuesday evening that the search and rescue mission was transitioning to one of search and recovery. He said divers would return to the site at 6 a.m. when challenging overnight conditions were expected to improve.
The six people unaccounted for were part of a construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge. Police had stopped traffic on the bridge just before the crash and said there is no evidence that anyone went into the water other than the workers.
The pilot of the ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse tried to slow it down before the crash, the head of a trade association for maritime pilots said.
Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots’ Association, said he has been in close contact with officials from the Association of Maryland Pilots who described to him what happened as the ship approached the bridge. He said when the ship was a few minutes out, it lost all power, including to its engines.
The pilot immediately ordered the rudder hard to port to keep the ship from turning right and ordered the port anchor be dropped, which it was, Diamond said. The pilot also contacted a dispatch office to get the bridge shut down.
Diamond said widely circulated images show the ship’s lights turning off and then back on, sparking questions about whether the vessel had regained power. But, he said, the emergency generators that kicked in turned the lights back on but not the ship’s propulsion.
Every foreign-flagged ship entering U.S. waters must have a state-licensed pilot on board. Pilots board the ships before they enter local waterways and take “navigational control” of the ship, Diamond said, meaning they give orders for the ship’s speed and direction.
“These are among the most highly trained mariners in the world,” he said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the path to rebuilding the collapsed Baltimore bridge won’t be easy or quick.
“This is no ordinary bridge. This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure,” he said at a news conference in Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon. “It has been part of the skyline for this region for longer than many of us have been alive.”
Buttigieg thanked first responders, including those still in the water as he spoke, and offered comfort to those “who woke up today to the news that no one wants to receive.”
“This is an excruciating day for several families,” he said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he’s spent time with the families of victims. “The strength of these families is absolutely remarkable,” he said.
One person involved in the Baltimore bridge collapse has been discharged from the hospital, an official with the medical center said.
Dr. David Efron, the chief of trauma at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, did not comment on the nature or severity of the patient’s injuries. The hospital has not released the patient’s name.
A cargo ship lost power and rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, destroying the span in a matter of seconds and plunging it into the river. Six construction workers are missing and presumed dead by their employer. One worker was taken to a hospital, a senior executive at the company confirmed.
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This entry has been updated to correct that just one patient was treated at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in connection with the bridge collapse, not two.
A fellow construction company employee says he was told his missing co-workers were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks when a Baltimore bridge collapsed early Tuesday after being struck by a container ship.
Brawner Builders employee Jesus Campos says he learned about the disaster from a co-worker and immediately worried about colleagues he knew were working on the bridge.
“When he told me that, they came to mind and I was praying to God that nothing had happened to them,” Campos said, speaking in Spanish.
“It is so hard for me to describe. I know that a month ago I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass. Imagine knowing that it is falling. It is so hard, one would not know what to do,” Campos said.
Jeffrey Pritzker, the company’s executive vice president, said six workers are presumed dead. Campos says the workers ranged in age from about 30 to 45 and all had families.
A senior executive at the company that employed the construction workers who’ve been unaccounted for since a Baltimore bridge collapsed says six of the company’s workers are presumed dead and one worker was hospitalized.
Brawner Builders Executive Vice President Jeffrey Pritzker says the crew was working in the middle of the bridge’s span when a cargo ship hit it early Tuesday and crumbled the bridge. He says the bodies of the workers have not yet been recovered but they are presumed to have died given the water’s depth and the amount of time that has passed since the collapse.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”
Radio traffic obtained from the Broadcastify.com archive indicates officers were just about to alert a construction crew when a major bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being hit by a container ship that had lost power.
The Maryland Transportation Authority first responder radio traffic includes a dispatcher putting out a call saying a ship had lost its steering ability and asking officers to stop all traffic. It took officers less than two minutes to stop traffic on the bridge.
One officer who had stopped traffic radioed that he was going to drive onto the bridge to notify the construction crew once a second officer arrived. But seconds later, a frantic officer radioed that the bridge had collapsed.
The six people still unaccounted for were part of the construction crew, which was filling potholes on the bridge.
