Baltimore officials are racing to save up to 20 people who plunged into the Patapsco River after a Singapore-flagged freighter crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge at 1:30 a.m.
Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning following the catastrophic collision that occurred at 1:30 a.m.
The ship, the Singapore-flagged Dali, had been traveling for 20 minutes when it crashed into a support column on the bridge.
It is still unclear what caused the accident. The video shows the ship going dark seconds before the collision, suggesting a power outage on board. The crew of 22 remains on board and is now being questioned by the Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, Maryland authorities are using sonar detection devices to search for vehicles that were submerged in 47F water.
Among the missing were members of a construction team who were carrying out “concrete repairs” on the bridge at the time.
Baltimore officials are racing to save up to 20 people who plunged into the Patapsco River after a Singapore freighter crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The Maryland Department of Transportation said there is an active search and rescue mission starting at 7:30 a.m.
Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning following the catastrophic collision around 1:30 a.m.
Stunning images show the moment the ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, sending the colossal steel structure 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 starting at 7:30 a.m.
Initial reports indicate that at least a dozen cars fell into the 47-degree water, along with about 20 construction workers who were repairing concrete on the bridge at the time. Workers were pouring concrete on the bridge at the time of the accident.
At the first press conference around 6:30 a.m., Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace could only confirm that two people were pulled from the water. One was unharmed, the other had to be rushed to a local hospital with “serious injuries.”
The FBI has ruled out terrorism as the cause of the accident.
It was not immediately clear what caused the freighter to crash into the bridge well before the busy morning commute in what one official called an “developing mass casualty event” in a major U.S. city outside Washington.
According to an initial report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the container ship “lost propulsion” as it left port.
“The ship notified the MD Department of Transportation (MDOT) that they had lost control of the ship and that a tie-up with the bridge was possible,” the report says. “The ship collided with the bridge causing a total collapse.”
The ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to break and bend in several places and fall into the water in a matter of seconds – a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media. The ship caught fire and thick black smoke came out of it.
The rescue effort incorporates Coast Guard ships, local police ships, the Baltimore Fire Department, volunteer fire departments from surrounding areas, as well as teams of divers as the desperate search for survivors continues.
There appeared to be an explosion 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 948-foot-long Dali, a Singapore-flagged container that could be seen on ship-tracking websites placed under the bridge after the accident.
It left Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal at 12:24 a.m., and at 1:25 a.m. it began to slow and veer off course. The video shows lights going out on board just before the accident.
The Dali ship was headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is not clear what load she was carrying. The ship was due to land in Asia on April 27.
According to the ship’s owners, all crew members were accounted for and no injuries were reported.
About 30,000 vehicles use the bridge, named after the author of the Star Spangled Banner, each day. It was inaugurated in 1977.
Sonar has indicated that there are vehicles in the water, where the temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit early 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 tractor-trailer.
The bridge collapsed in the middle of the night, when traffic would be lighter than during the day, when thousands of cars traverse the span.
In 2001, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in a tunnel in downtown Baltimore and caught fire, dumping black smoke into surrounding neighborhoods and forcing officials to temporarily close all major roads into the city.