The 300-meter cargo ship was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
New York:
The crew of 20 Indians and one Sri Lankan of the container ship that collided with a major bridge in Baltimore last week are “busy with their normal duties” and will remain on board until the investigation into the accident is completed.
“It has been confirmed that there are 21 crew members on board. The crew members are engaged in their normal duties on the vessel and are assisting National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard investigators on board,” a spokesperson for Grace Ocean Pte and Synergy Marine told PTI.
The crew is aboard the container ship Dali that collided with the 1.6-mile, four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore in the early hours of March 26. The 984-foot cargo ship was bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.
As for how long the crew would have to remain on board the ship, the spokesperson said: “At this time we do not know how long the investigation process will take and until that process is complete the crew will remain on board.” The Singapore-flagged Dali is owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd and operated by Synergy Marine Group. Earlier, the non-profit organization Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center had said the Indian crew on board the container ship was “healthy”.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi earlier said that there were 20 Indians on board the Dali and that the Indian embassy in Washington was in close contact with them and local authorities.
Last week, US authorities began interviewing personnel aboard Dali. The Synergy Group had said in a statement that the NTSB boarded the ship on Wednesday and collected documents, excerpts from voyage data recorders and other evidence as part of their investigation.
Grace Ocean and Synergy have confirmed the safety of all crew members and two pilots on board the ship. However, they reported one minor injury and said the injured crew member was treated and released from a hospital.
Six people, who were part of a construction crew repairing holes in the bridge when the collision occurred, are believed killed. Divers recovered the bodies of two of the construction workers from a red pickup found submerged in the river and a search continued for the remaining four victims.
US President Joe Biden said the crew aboard Dali had alerted transport personnel that they had lost control of the ship, allowing authorities to close the Baltimore Bridge to traffic before the devastating collision, ‘undoubtedly’ costing lives saved.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by WhatsNew2Day staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)