TWO bodies of construction workers were found in the frigid waters of Baltimore Harbor Wednesday, trapped inside their red pickup truck after a giant cargo ship crashed into a bridge where they were repairing a hole on it, causing it to collapse with a thunderous sound.
Maryland police announced the sobering discovery at a news conference, adding that sonar showed what they believed to be another vehicle trapped in the folded concrete and steel debris of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Six of the eight members of the construction crew are believed to be dead, with four bodies yet to be found.
Warning it was unsafe for divers to try to penetrate the wreckage, police said in a news conference that they were turning to a rescue operation, removing the superstructure and then sending divers back to retrieve the remaining bodies.
“Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles were trapped inside the superstructure and the concrete we saw tragically collapse,” Col. Roland Butler, Maryland state police superintendent, said at a news conference.
The container ship Dali, about 1,000 feet (300 meters) long, and heavily laden, was leaving the busy port at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday headed to Asia when the power went out and the ship crashed directly into a support column.
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Nearly the entire steel structure collapsed in a matter of seconds, sliding over the front of the ship, blockading one of the busiest trade ports in the US.
The ship issued a distress call moments before the collision, prompting police to immediately stop traffic on the bridge — possibly saving lives.
But there was no chance to evacuate eight workers who were repairing a hole in the road directly above the incoming ship.
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The two victims were Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, a 35-year-old man who lived in Baltimore but was from Mexico and his 26-year-old partner, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, who lived in suburban Dundalk but was from Guatemala.
They were found at a depth of 25 feet, he said.
Two other people were pulled from the water alive within seconds of the collapse early Tuesday morning. One of them was uninjured, while the second was released from the hospital on Wednesday, Butler said.
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Four other workers were presumed dead, disappearing in the swirling currents and piles of shattered steel and beams.
The ship, which remained entangled in debris on Wednesday, was “stable,” Vice Adm. Peter Gautier of the Coast Guard told reporters at the White House, adding that the ship’s mostly Indian crew remained aboard and were “very involved” in the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board, a federal authority, said the ship’s data recorder, or black box, had been recovered so investigators could understand what went wrong.
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Gautier emphasized that the ship does not harm the environment, even though there are about one and a half billion gallons of oil and several dozen containers of hazardous cargo on board. Two other containers escaped into the sea, he said.
The missing workers were from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
“They’re all hard-working, humble guys,” said Jesus Campos, a partner of the eight workers, who all work for contractor Brawner Builders.
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One of those now presumed dead was Miguel Luna, a father of three, according to Casa, a nonprofit organization serving immigrant communities.
Luna, from El Salvador, had left for work at 6:30 p.m. Monday and never returned, Casa said.
His wife, Maria del Carmen Castellon, told Telemundo 44 that she was “devastated” as she waited for any information.
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“My heart hurts about this situation,” Campos said.
Footage of the crash shows the ship crashing into one of the supports of the 47-year-old bridge.
The ship had passed two overseas inspections in 2023, the maritime authority for Singapore, where the ship is flagged, said on Wednesday, adding that a fault monitoring device was installed in June.
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The Port of Baltimore is the ninth most populous U.S. port in terms of foreign cargo handling and foreign cargo value, and is directly responsible for more than 15,000 jobs, supporting nearly 140,000 more jobs.
The effect on supply chains “clearly will not be trivial,” said US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, adding that it was “too soon” to know when ports could reopen.
“Rebuilding will not be quick, or easy, or cheap,” he said.
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