WASHINGTON: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a criminal investigation targeting the container ship that crashed into a major road bridge in Baltimore in March, collapsing it and killing six people, US media reported Monday.
In a statement to AFP, the FBI said that as a matter of policy it does not confirm or deny investigations. But it did say its agents were aboard the Singapore-flagged Dali container ship, which remains pinned beneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s wreckage about three weeks after the incident.
The bridge, a major transit route into the busy city and port of Baltimore, was destroyed in moments on March 26 when the Dali lost power and drifted into a support column. The ship had managed to issue a Mayday call in the moments before the accident which gave police time to stop traffic on the bridge, possibly saving lives.
Human Loss in Baltimore Bridge Collapse
But an eight-man construction staff repairing potholes on the bridge could not be reached in time, and plummeted with the twisted steel and tons of concrete into the cold waters below. Two workers were rescued alive — one briefly hospitalized, but the other unharmed.
The bodies of two more have been found, while four remain missing, believed to still be pinned beneath the wreckage. Shipping in and out of Baltimore — one of the US’s busiest ports — has been halted, with the waterway impassable due to the sprawling wreckage.
The officials hope that removing the bridge — by cutting it into smaller sections and lifting them out — will help rescue workers recover all bodies and eventually reopen the crucial shipping lane. The National Transportation Safety Board has also opened a probe into the disaster.
