Thursday, March 28, 2024 – Two bodies have been recovered from the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
The two men, identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez
Fuentez of Baltimore, and 26-year-old Darlene Rania El Castillo Cabrera of
Dundalk, were brought to shore on Wednesday morning, police confirmed.
'The teams made a tragic finding shortly before 10:00 ET
with a red pickup truck near the bridge' Ronald L Butler from Maryland State
Police said at a briefing on Wednesday evening.
'Divers recovered two victims trapped within the vehicle' he
told reporters.
'My heart, and the heart of the entire city of Baltimore, is
with you and will be with you forever' Mayor Brandon Scott said of the victim's
families.
All six construction workers who were repairing potholes on
the bridge when a cargo shipping container vessel crashed into it are presumed
dead, with four bodies yet to be recovered. Two surviving workers were pulled
out of the water on Tuesday.
The search for those missing began early on Wednesday
morning after the Coast Guard called off its active search and rescue mission
on Tuesday.
However, divers are now unable to safely navigate the waters
due to the concrete and debris that has fallen into the water from the
destroyed bridge, Maryland police said on Wednesday evening.
Police have used sonar scans and believe that the other
vehicles are 'encased in superstructure and concrete.'
Earlier on Wednesday a port worker claimed that the Dali
cargo ship which smashed into the bridge suffered a 'severe electrical problem'
while docked in Baltimore days before.
Julie Mitchell, co-administrator of Container Royalty, a
company which tracks cargo, told CNN the ship was anchored at the port for
at least 48 hours prior to the deadly crash.
Following the devastation, she said: 'And those two days,
they were having serious power outages… they had a severe electrical problem.
It was total power failure, loss of engine power, everything.'
Mitchell explained that refrigerated boxes tripped breakers
on board the ship on several occasions, and mechanics had been trying to fix
the issue.
She said she didn't know whether the problem had been fixed
when the ship set off.
The 1.6-mile Key Bridge partially collapsed after the cargo
shipping container vessel crashed into one of its support structures just
before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the ship's crew notified
officials that it had lost power in the moments before the collision.
Mitchell told CNN that major power problems on board large
vessels like the Dali are 'not really that common at all', describing the freak
incident as 'very rare'.
'They shouldn't have let the ship leave port until they got
it on under control,' she said.
It has been widely reported that the Dali suffered a loss in
propulsion which caused steering issues in the lead-up to the crash that caused
the iconic bridge to collapse like a 'house of cards.'
One officer on the Dali also said that before the crash, the
engines 'coughed and then stopped.' There was not enough time before the ship
hit the bridge to drop anchors prompting the vessel to drift.
'The vessel went dead, no steering power and no
electronics... The smell of burned fuel was everywhere in the engine room and
it was pitch black,' the officer said.
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