Chilling audio recorded before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore reveals authorities’ race to clear the 1.6-mile span before a powerless cargo ship collided with one of its support pillars. They had less than 90 seconds to act.
Crew aboard the Dali, a vessel chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk, issued a mayday call in the early hours of Tuesday morning. They warned the ship had lost power shortly after departing the Port of Baltimore for Colombo, Sri Lanka, and as result lost its steering capabilities.
“I need one of you guys on the south side, one of you guys on the north side, hold all traffic on the Key Bridge,” one officer can be heard saying in radio traffic obtained by Broadcastify. “There’s a ship approaching that just lost its steering. So until we get that under control, we have to stop all traffic.”
Another officer quickly confirms he’s managed to cut off the flow of cars to the Key Bridge, a four-lane passageway crossing the Patapsco River and a major link in the region’s transport networks.
“There’s a crew working there,” one officer then says. “You might want to notify whoever the foreman is, see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily.”
His comrade responds, telling him he’ll alert the workers once another unit arrives on the scene. But they were already out of time. Powerless and packed with massive containers, the 984-foot cargo ship rammed into a support pillar around 1:30 a.m., causing the bridge to shatter and plunge into the chilly waters below.
“The whole bridge just fell down,” a frantic officer says. “Start, start whoever, everybody … the whole bridge just collapsed.”
Maryland transportation secretary Paul Wiedefeld said eight workers were patching potholes on the bridge at the time of the collision. Two of them were rescued, including one who was briefly hospitalized, while another six are presumed dead. A search for their bodies was slated to resume Wednesday morning.
Among the missing were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries. Only one of them, a Honduran man named Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandova, has been identified so far.
While an investigation into the deadly incident is still underway, officials have said there is no evidence to suggest it was an intentional act.
With News Wire Services