Singapore’s port authorities said on Wednesday that the container ship that slammed into a bridge in Baltimore, United States, and caused it to collapse, blocking one of America’s most important commercial ports, had passed two inspections in 2023 .
The ship’s classification certificates relating to “the structural integrity of the vessel and the operation of the vessel’s equipment were valid at the time of the incident“, port authorities said. According to the same source, a faulty fuel pressure control gauge had been repaired in June.
Late Tuesday, port authorities said their investigators and those from the Singapore Transportation Safety Investigation Bureau were on their way to Baltimore to support the U.S. Coast Guard.
The MV Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship, had “suffered a momentary loss of propulsion” just before hitting the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed and blocked the commercial port. The Port of Baltimore is the ninth largest U.S. port in terms of foreign cargo handled and value of foreign cargo. It directly employs more than 15,000 people and indirectly nearly 140,000 others.
Emergency services suspended searches around the Baltimore Bridge on Tuesday evening, with US authorities believing that the six missing people were now presumed dead.