Officials say two people have been rescued after a section of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday when a container ship hit it, resulting in vehicles and people falling into the water below the structure.
The cargo ship rammed into one of the bridge’s supports at approximately 1:30 a.m., causing cars to fall into the Patapsco River, Fox 5 DC reported Tuesday, adding that the water was at about 47 degrees Fahrenheit when the incident occurred.
Video footage shows the moment the ship approached the bridge and hit it. The bridge then collapsed into the water:
The Fox article continued:
Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said two people had been rescued following the collapse. One was hospitalized and one was not. At least six others are still believed to be in the water. All eight were a part of a construction crew that was filling potholes.
“Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that. It looked like something out of an action movie,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott at the update. He called the situation “an unthinkable tragedy.”
There were reportedly serious problems aboard the ship, called the MV Dali, before its collision with the bridge, Breitbart News reported.
The outlet said its power went out for several minutes. “Now the BBC notes ‘an unclassified memo’ from the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) states it has confirmed the ship ‘lost propulsion’ before hitting the bridge,” the article noted:
So evidently the ship was, as nautical parlance has it, “not under command,” meaning “at the mercy of winds and seas” — and, in this case, inertia. What we do not know is whether this state of having “lost propulsion” means the engine ceased to function or if the coupling taking the energy from the engine to the propeller was damaged. In either case, the ship was disabled at a critical moment and in a critical place and collided with enormous force.
“The bridge is gone. Holy hell,” one person filming the aftermath said from behind the camera, per Today. The outlet noted that smoke was seen coming from the ship before the incident.
Despite the early hour of the collision, vehicles were seen crossing the bridge above the ship, the outlet said:
“This is a dire emergency,” said Baltimore Fire Department Director of Communications Kevin Cartwright. He added that crews are working to rescue and recover the other people involved.
The ship was reportedly on its way to Colombo, Sri Lanka, per the Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder.
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