Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are carrying out their work aboard the Dali container ship that is stuck in the Patapsco River, days after it collided with the iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge.
On Wednesday, rescuers in Baltimore recovered two more bodies in the search for construction workers who died when the ship collided with the bridge in the early hours of Tuesday, destroying it.
Meanwhile, the Dali’s 22-man crew is still aboard the ship, with no date set for disembarking.
An official said divers located the bodies of Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, 36, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, inside a red pickup truck that sank 25 feet into the frigid Patapsco River after impact.
A day earlier, workers named two other victims as Miguel Luna, 49, and Maynor Suazo, 38.
His colleague, Jesús Campos, who was not working that fateful night, previously told media that the group was on their lunch break at the time of the accident and that two were in a work truck.
Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Roland L. Butler said in announcing the location of the bodies that rescuers had “exhausted all search efforts” as debris had made the underwater crash site too volatile. .
National Transportation Safety Board investigators examining what remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge
The 22-man crew remains aboard the Dali as the investigation continues.
Miguel Luna, 49, and Maynor Suazo, 38, were named by their family as two of the missing
The body of Dorlian Cabrera from Guatemala has already been recovered. She was inside a tractor-trailer at the time of impact.
The gigantic craft is made of thick, high-strength steel and is powered by an engine and propeller. She is owned by Grace Ocean, based in Singapore, and is chartered by the Danish Maersk.
During the press conference, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy was asked about the supplies the ship’s crew has. She joked: “The cook was cooking when I came on board, she smelled very good and was very hungry.”
A video released Wednesday showed NTSB investigators moving around the ship, taking photographs and examining the wreckage left after Tuesday’s disaster.
The 22-man crew are all citizens of India. One of them suffered minor injuries after the collision. The ship was headed to Sri Lanka from Baltimore, a journey that would have taken 27 days.
The ship was carrying 56 containers filled with 764 tons of hazardous materials, including some flammable and corrosive.
More is known about the victims of the bridge collapse.
Alejandro Fuentes lived in Baltimore, Dorlian Cabrera lived in Dundalk, Maryland. All members of the construction team were from Latin America. They all worked for a company called Brawner Builders.
‘He was always very happy to be able to share the little he was able to earn there in the United States. Everyone else always came first,” said Suazo’s nephew, Héctor Guardado. the Washington Post.
Shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, the Dalí crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, completely destroying the structure.
Miguel Luna’s son, Marvin, said he didn’t find out about the bridge collapse until his friends called him.
Eighteen years ago, Sandoval left alone for the United States in search of opportunities.
He had worked as an industrial technician in Honduras, repairing equipment in large assembly plants, but the salary was too low to get ahead, one of his brothers, Martín Suazo Sandoval, said Wednesday, standing on the dirt street in front of the company’s house. family. Small hotel in Honduras.
“He always dreamed of having his own business,” she said.
Another brother, Carlos Suazo Sandoval, said Maynor hoped to retire one day in Guatemala.
‘He was the baby of all of us, the youngest. He was someone who was always happy, he was always thinking about the future.
“He was a visionary,” he told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday from Dundalk, Maryland, near the site of the bridge collapse.
Maynor entered the United States illegally and settled in Maryland. At first, she did whatever work she could find, including construction and clearing brush.
01:24: In the event of a suspected electrical fault, the ship’s lights are turned off, plunging the ship into darkness.
He eventually started a package delivery business in the Baltimore-Washington area, Martín Suazo Sandoval said.
Other brothers and relatives followed him north.
‘He was the fundamental pillar, the bastion so that other family members could also travel there and then get visas and everything,’ said Martín Suazo Sandoval. “He was really the driving force for most of the family to be able to travel.”
Maynor has a wife and two children, ages 17 and 5, he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Maynor to look for other work and he joined Brawner Builders, the company that was maintaining the bridge when it collapsed.
Martín Suazo Sandoval said that Maynor never spoke of being afraid of the work, despite the heights at which he worked on the bridges.
‘He always told us that we had to triple the effort to get ahead,’ said Martín Suazo Sandoval. “He said it didn’t matter what time it was or where the work was, you had to be where the work was.”
Things were going well until the collapse. She was following the steps to obtain legal residency and planned to return to Honduras this year to complete the process, his brother said.
Although Maynor had not been able to return to Honduras, he had financially supported several non-governmental social organizations in the city, as well as the youth soccer league, his brother said.
01:27: A column of thick black smoke rises from the top of the Dali as it heads towards the bridge.
Divers have been forced to suspend the search due to volatile conditions.
The area relies heavily on agriculture (coffee, livestock, sugar cane), he 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 times 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 are still missing. He did not want to share their names for the families’ privacy.
The tragedy illustrated the contributions migrants make to the U.S. economy, López Obrador said.
‘This shows that immigrants go out and do risky work at midnight. And for this reason they do not deserve to be treated as they are by certain insensitive and irresponsible politicians in the United States,’ he stated.
Later, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland State Police, announced that divers had located the bodies of two men, ages 35 and 26, inside a red pickup truck submerged in about 25 feet of water. near the center of the bridge. span.
One was the Guatemalan Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26 years old, and the other Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, 35 years old, originally from Mexico.
Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry had previously confirmed that two of its citizens were among the missing. And El Salvador’s Foreign Minister, Alexandra Hill Tinoco, published on X on Wednesday that a Salvadoran citizen, Miguel Luna, was among the missing workers.
Federal and state investigators have said the crash appears to have been an accident.