Bodies of two Baltimore bridge collapse victims pulled from truck as fellow missing workers identified

The bodies of two construction workers missing from the Baltimore bridge collapse have been recovered from a vehicle, while the other four victims are presumed to be dead.

Both bodies were pulled from a red pickup truck under about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River just before 10am on Wednesday, Maryland State Police Col Roland Butler said in the evening.

‘Divers recovered two victims of this tragedy trapped within the vehicle,’ said Butler.

They have been identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Maryland.

Their families were notified about an hour before the press conference involving multiple agencies.

The six workers who vanished after a massive cargo ship ploughed onto the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday were from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, officials said.

As more than 24 hours passed since the 289 metre-long cargo ship collided with the bridge, hope faded to find survivors.

An unknown number of vehicles plunged in the murky water after the vessel headed to Sri Lanka brought down the 1.6-mile bridge in the early morning hours yesterday.

Miguel Luna, 40, from El Salvador, was one of the construction workers who had been fixing potholes on the bridge. The dad-of-three was named as one of the victims by a nonprofit organization that serves the local immigrant community. His body is yet to be recovered.

Among the crew were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, diplomats from those countries confirmed. The Honduran man was named as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, in his 30s, by a migrant protection service from his homeland.

Emergency services were deployed to the scene yesterday; helicopters were seen circling over the stretch of the river after what is one of the biggest bridge crashes in almost 50 years.

Only two people were pulled out from the Patapsco River, with one hospitalized in a ‘very serious condition’.

Police said there is no evidence that anyone went into the water other than the workers, though they had not discounted the possibility.

By the evening, the Coast Guard said the mission had transitioned from search and rescue to recovery.

Search divers are expected to return near dawn today to the waters surrounding the twisted metal ruins, where the Singapore-flagged container vessel Dali is still lodged.

In the last few hours, investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recovered the data recorder after boarding the ship late on Tuesday.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said they will also interview the ship’s crew.

State police colonel Roland Butler told reporters late Tuesday that efforts turned into a recovery operation to retrieve the bodies of the victims of the disaster.

Coast Guard rear admiral Shannon Gilreath added during the briefing: ‘Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search the extensive search efforts that have gone into it, the water temperature, at this point we do not believe we are going to find these individuals alive.

‘The coast guard’s not going away, none of our partners are going away, but we are just going to transition into a different phase.’

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said with the ship barreling toward the bridge at ‘a very, very rapid speed’, authorities had just enough time to stop more cars from coming over the bridge.

He said: ‘These people are heroes. They saved lives last night.’

The collapse happened mere seconds after the collision, but long before the busy morning commute in what one official called a ‘developing mass casualty event’.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said: ‘Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that.’

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