2 bodies found from bridge
BALTIMORE -- The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent "routine engine maintenance" in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday, as divers recovered the bodies of two of six workers who plunged into the water when it collapsed. The others were presumed dead, and officials said search efforts had been exhausted. The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, has found two bodies of two workers, two of whom were found in a red pickup submerged in 25 feet of water near the bridge's middle span. The bodies were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who were from Guatemala and living in Maryland. The other six workers were also found missing. The cargo ship was carrying 56 containers of hazardous materials and was carrying power and steering when it hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the missing. All search efforts have been exhausted and authorities believe other vehicles with victims inside are encased in superstructures and concrete from the collapsed bridge. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the ship's electronics and paperwork, interviewing the captain and crew members, and reviewing the voyage data recorder recovered by the Coast Guard and building a timeline of what led to the crash.
ที่ตีพิมพ์ : 4 อาทิตย์ที่แล้ว โดย ใน Politics
BALTIMORE -- The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent "routine engine maintenance" in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday, as divers recovered the bodies of two of six workers who plunged into the water when it collapsed. The others were presumed dead, and officials said search efforts had been exhausted.
Investigators on Wednesday began collecting evidence from the vessel that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge the previous day. The bodies of the two men were located in the morning inside a red pickup submerged in about 25 feet of water near the bridge's middle span, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, announced at an evening news conference.
He identified the men as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, who was from Mexico and living in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who was from Guatemala and living in Dundalk, Md.
The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the missing.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, addressed their families in Spanish during the news conference, saying 'we are with you, now and always.'
All search efforts have been exhausted, and based on sonar scans, authorities "firmly" believe the other vehicles with victims inside are encased in superstructures and concrete from the collapsed bridge, Butler said. Divers are to return to search for remains once the waters are clear of debris.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said authorities had been informed that the ship was going to undergo the maintenance.
"As far as the engine goes, we were not informed of any problems with the vessel," he said. "We were informed that they were going to conduct routine engine maintenance on it while it was in port. And that's the only thing we were informed about the vessel in that regard."
The investigation ramped up as the Baltimore region reeled from the sudden loss of a major transportation link that's part of the highway loop around the city. The disaster also closed the port, which is vital to the city's shipping industry.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board boarded the ship to recover information from its electronics and paperwork and to do interviews with the captain and other crew members, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a separate news conference. Twenty-three people, including two pilots, were on the ship when it crashed, she said.
The vessel was also carrying 56 containers of hazardous materials, including corrosives, flammables and lithium ion batteries, Homendy said. She added that some containers were breached, and that a sheen on the water from those materials would be handled by authorities.
The agency also is reviewing the voyage data recorder recovered by the Coast Guard and building a timeline of what led to the crash, which federal and state officials have said appeared to be an accident.
The crew of the ship issued a mayday call early Tuesday saying they had lost power and steering, just minutes before it struck one of the bridge's columns.
At least eight people initially went into the water, and two of them were rescued Tuesday, officials said.
The debris complicated the search, according to a Homeland Security memo 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 on condition of anonymity.
The governor said the divers faced dangerous conditions.
"They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them," Moore said, adding that they were also trying to navigate mangled metal.
One missing worker, a 38-year-old man from Honduras, was described by his brother as entrepreneurial and hard-working. He started last year with the company that was doing the bridge maintenance.
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval was the youngest of eight siblings from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras along the border with Guatemala.
Eighteen years ago, he set out on his own for the U.S. looking for opportunities. He had worked as an industrial technician in Honduras, repairing equipment in the large assembly plants, but the pay was too low to get ahead, one of his brothers, Martín Suazo Sandoval, said Wednesday while standing in the dirt street in front of the family's small hotel in Honduras.
"He always dreamed of having his own business," he said.
Another brother, Carlos Suazo Sandoval, said Maynor hoped to retire one day back in Guatemala.
"He was the baby for all of us, the youngest. He was someone who was always happy, was always thinking about the future. He was a visionary," he told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday from Dundalk, near the site of the bridge collapse.
Maynor entered the United States illegally and settled in Maryland. At first, he did any work he could find, including construction and clearing brush. Eventually, he started a package delivery business in the Baltimore-Washington area, Martín Suazo Sandoval said.
Other siblings and relatives followed him north.
"He was the fundamental pillar, the bastion so that other members of the family could also travel there and later get visas and everything," Martín Suazo Sandoval said. "He was really the driving force so that most of the family could travel."
Maynor has a wife and two children ages 17 and 5, he said.
The covid-19 pandemic forced Maynor to find other work, and he joined Brawner Builders, the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge when it collapsed.
Martín Suazo Sandoval said Maynor never talked about being scared of the work, despite the heights he worked at on the bridges. "He always told us that you had to triple your effort to get ahead," Martín Suazo Sandoval said. "He said it didn't matter what time or where the job was, you had to be where the work was."
Things had been going well for him until the collapse. He was moving through the steps to get legal residency and planned to return to Honduras this year to complete the process, his brother said.
Maynor's employer broke the news of his disappearance to his family, leaving them devastated, especially his mother, who still lives in Azacualpa, Martín Suazo Sandoval said.
"These are difficult moments, and the only thing we can do is keep the faith," he said, noting that his younger brother knew how to swim and could have ended up anywhere. If the worst outcome is confirmed, he said, the family would work to return his body to Honduras.
In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said three Mexicans were on the bridge when it fell, including one who was injured but rescued and two who were still missing. He wouldn't share their names for the families' privacy.
The tragedy illustrated the contributions that migrants make to the U.S. economy, López Obrador said.
"This demonstrates that migrants go out and do risky jobs at midnight. And for this reason, they do not deserve to be treated as they are by certain insensitive, irresponsible politicians in the United States," he said.
Guatemala's Foreign Affairs Ministry had earlier confirmed that two of its citizens were among the missing. And El Salvador's foreign minister, Alexandra Hill Tinoco, posted Wednesday on X that one Salvadoran citizen, Miguel Luna, was among the missing workers.
Video showed the ship moving at what Maryland's governor said was about 9 mph toward the 1.6-mile bridge. Traffic was still crossing the span, and some vehicles appeared to escape with only seconds to spare. The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds.
A last-minute warning from the ship allowed police just enough time to stop traffic on the highway. One officer parked sideways across the lanes and planned to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew once another officer arrived. But he did not get the chance as the powerless vessel barreled into the bridge.
Attention has also turned to the container ship Dali and its past.
Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, said the impact happened while it was under the control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely in and out of ports.
The vessel passed foreign port state inspections in June and September 2023. In the June 2023 inspection, a faulty monitor gauge for fuel pressure was rectified before the vessel departed, Singapore's port authority said in a statement Wednesday.
The ship was traveling under a Singapore flag, and officials there said they will conduct their own investigation in addition to supporting U.S. authorities.
The sudden loss of a highway that carries 30,000 vehicles a day and the disruption of the vital port will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters but also U.S. consumers who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays.
"A lot of people don't realize how important the port is just to everything," said Cat Watson, who used the bridge to get to work every day and lives close enough that she was awakened by the collision. "We're going to be feeling it for a very long time."
The Port of Baltimore is a busy entry point for new vehicles made in Germany, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom, along with coal and farm equipment.
Ship traffic has been suspended indefinitely. Windward Maritime, a maritime risk-management company, said its data shows a large increase in ships that are waiting for a port to go to, with some anchored outside Baltimore or nearby Annapolis.
At the White House, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Biden administration was focused on reopening the port and rebuilding the bridge, which was completed in 1977. But he avoided putting a timeline on those efforts. He noted that the original bridge took five years to construct.
Buttigieg also planned to meet today with supply chain officials.
Barges, including some with cranes, were on their way to Baltimore to help remove the wreckage, Gilreath said.
Homendy said the NTSB investigation could take 12 to 24 months but the agency may issue urgent safety recommendations sooner. A preliminary report should come in two to four weeks.
"It's a massive undertaking for an investigation," Homendy said. "It's a very tragic event."
Information for this article was contributed by Lea Skene, Brian Witte, Claudio Escalon, Sonia Pérez D., Marcos Aléman,Will Weissert, Nathan Ellgren, Colleen Long, Sarah Brumfield, Rebecca Santana, Jake Offenhartz, Joshua Goodman, Ben Finley, Claudia Lauer, Juliet Linderman, Josh Boak, David McHugh, John Seewer, Michael Kunzelman, Mike Catalini and Sarah Rankin of The Associated Press.
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