'Dire' rescue after ship strike triggers Baltimore bridge collapse, sending cars plummeting 185 feet into water

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Fox News

 

The Francis Scott Key Bridge along I-695 in Maryland collapsed into the Baltimore harbor early Tuesday morning following a "ship strike," Maryland transportation officials said.

 

A livestream of the bridge appeared to show a cargo ship colliding with a support beam, causing the bridge to break and fall into the Patapsco River. Multiple vehicles were on the bridge at the time.

Emergency crews were searching for at least 20 people believed to be in the water, Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press around 3 a.m. Officials have described this as a mass casualty event. There were no specific number of deceased. 

"Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people," Cartwright said, calling the collapse a "developing mass casualty event."

 

It is believed that a Singapore-flagged cargo ship struck the heavily-traveled bridge. The large vessel then caught fire before it sank.

The Maryland Transportation Authority said on social media that all lanes are closed in both directions and that traffic is being detoured. Later, it urged drivers to avoid the I-695 southeast corridor and to instead use I-95 or I-895.

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Rescuers scramble to save dozens including 20 from construction crew working on Baltimore's colossal Key Bridge after it collapsed in moments when container ship crashed into it flinging cars and a semi-truck into freezing river

 

Wallace said that workers are looking for 'upwards of seven' people but that the number of missing could change as the collapse is a 'very large incident.' The chief called the efforts a 'search and rescue' operation. 

At the same press conference, officials ruled out terrorism as relating to the cause of the crash.  

The rescue effort incorporates Coast Guard ships, local police boats, Baltimore's Fire Department, volunteer fire departments from the surrounding areas as well as teams of divers as the desperate search for survivors goes on. 

There appeared to be an explosion on the container ship as it collided with the bridge sending container and diesel flooding into the water. One of the vehicles that fell to the water was a tractor-trailer. 

The ship involved is the 948 foot long Dali, a Singaporean-flagged container which could be seen on ship tracking websites positioned stationary under the bridge following the crash. 

It left Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal at 12:24am, at 1:25am, is began to slow and diverted off of its course. The video shows lights going off on board just before the crash. :snip:

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Mar 26, 2024 #baltimore #keybridge #dali

Dali Lost Power Outbound from Baltimore

 

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It Could Take HOW LONG to Rebuild Francis Scott Key Bridge???

Could it really take twice as long and four times as much money to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge than it did to build it in the first place?

The Key Bridge was built at a cost (adjusted for inflation) of about $200 million. Replacing it could take a decade and cost $400 million to $800 million dollars, according to experts in what has become a dismal field.

 

“To actually recreate that whole transportation network" could take a decade or more, structural engineer Ben Schafer told USA Today on Wednesday. Huge projects, Schafer said, now take “rarely less than 10 years."

Well, they didn't use to.

By comparison, the Apollo program that put a man on the moon required seven years, eight months, and 23 days. And — this is the really exciting part — everything about Apollo, from the massive Saturn V rocket to the "tiny" flight computer, had to be created from scratch. Those seven-and-a-half years included a monthslong delay following the tragic loss of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee during an Apollo 1 dress rehearsal that ended in a deadly crew capsule fire.

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FBI opens criminal investigation into Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse: Sources

The FBI is investigating whether there was any criminal wrongdoing in the crash that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The probe will look at whether the crew left port with the knowledge something could be wrong with the ship, according to a source.