Authorities on Tuesday suspended their search for six people missing after a packed cargo ship slammed into a Baltimore bridge, causing it to collapse and blocking one of the busiest US commercial harbors.
All six people were members of a nighttime construction crew who were repairing potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when disaster struck not long after midnight.
Roland Butler, Maryland’s secretary of state police explained that the temperatures and currents of the water was making it difficult for divers to continue working underwater, but that boats would continue patrolling overnight.
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According to him, “We’re going away from the search and rescue portion to a recovery operation”.
However, the US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath told a press conference as night fell of the uncertainty of still finding some missing individuals alive inside the water.
According to them, “Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature… at this point, we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,”
Maryland Governor Wes Moore stated that according to preliminary investigation, the tragic incident was an accident.
Paul Wiedefeld, the Maryland transportation chief, said the crew working on the bridge was “basically repairing potholes, just so you understand that had nothing to do with a structural issue at all.”
President Joe Biden called the collapse a “terrible accident,” and pledged to get the port reopened and the bridge rebuilt.
