by Mick the Ram

As more details emerge from the shocking Baltimore bridge incident, it is understood that the ship suffered loss of propulsion and essentially lost use of its engines.

Despite frantic efforts by the local pilot on board, he soon realised the enormous container vessel was out of control and issued a mayday call informing authorities that a collision was inevitable and imminent.

This prompted the closing of the bridge to traffic, which undoubtedly saved many lives.

Sadly they never got chance to alert the 8 construction workers who were on the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the time and on impact they fell into the Patapsco River.

Two were rescued, one being quite badly injured, but the other six are still missing and tragically are now presumed dead.

One of those workers was named today as Miguel Luna, who is from El Salvador. He, along with his colleagues, worked for Brawner Builders and they were filling potholes on the road bridge at the time of the collapse.

The nationalities of the other five men are believed to be from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and another from El Salvador.

A marine specialist, said that the bodies may either be trapped under bridge wreckage in murky water at the bottom of the river, or a high current may have carried them up or down stream.

The Singapore-registered Dali was inspected twice last year at foreign ports and was certified fit for service. Early on Wednesday (27th) morning the data recorder was recovered and has been taken away for analysis.

Companies are already diverting business to other east coast ports, after officials confirmed that maritime traffic through Baltimore will be suspended until further notice, raising fears of significant disruption to global supply chains.

Last year alone saw more than 47 million tonnes of foreign cargo pass through and on top of that, the port supports around 15,000 jobs directly and nearly 140,000 indirectly, according to state estimates.

“Stop all traffic”

Audio of the first responder call when police decided to block traffic from entering the bridge shortly before its collapse, has been released. In it an officer shouts over the police radio: “Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge; there’s a ship approaching that’s just lost their steering, so until they get that under control, we’ve got to stop all traffic.”

That was in immediate response to the mayday call from the Dali crew. Another identifies that there are construction workers actually positioned on the bridge and insists that the foreman be notified and to allow the workers to be escorted off the bridge.

Unfortunately, within seconds and before anybody has had opportunity to take action, a panicked call comes through stating in a clearly alarmed voice: “The whole bridge just fell down.”

“Wonderful family men”

Brawner Builders are a local contractor that carries out maintenance work on bridges in Maryland state. The company’s executive vice-president, Jeffrey Pritzker, speaking of the six missing workers said: “They were wonderful family people; it’s a very, very bad day.”

Two of the other missing men were confirmed as being Guatemalan nationals by their Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Taking break in truck

One man who was working in a gang on the bridge just a month ago, knew several of the missing men. Jesus Campos said he was told that the crew were on a break when the bridge collapsed, and some were actually sitting in their trucks. “Imagine knowing that it is falling; you would not know what to do.”

Miguel Luna was identified by the non-profit organisation Casa’s executive director Gustavo Torres, which provides services to the immigrant community in Baltimore. “He is a husband, a father of three, and has called Maryland his home for over 19 years.”

Passed inspections

The ship passed its first of two inspections in 2023 in June at a port in Chile, when a faulty gauge which monitors fuel pressure was detected and fixed, before the ship left the port. Three months later the West Coast Guard inspected the vessel in New York, and it was found to have “no deficiencies” and certificates covering the structural integrity of the vessel and functionality of the ship’s equipment were valid at the time of the incident.

Engine failure

Video footage showed the lights flickering on the ship just before impact, less than an hour into its 27-day journey from Baltimore to Sri Lanka. It appeared to be moving rapidly and had no chance of diverting once it lost control of the steering.

Even though an emergency generator is believed to have kicked in, the container ship never regained the use of its engines. 

President promises rebuild

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said at a briefing there was “no question that this will be a major and protracted impact to supply chains” and that it was “too soon to offer estimates on what it will take to clear the channel and reopen the port.”

President Biden told reporters that the US government would “move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as it is humanly possible.”