Bodies of two Baltimore bridge collapse victims pulled from truck they were trapped in
Two construction workers' bodies were recovered and the other four are presumed dead after a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
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. Fuentes was originally from Mexico while Cabrera was from Guatemala.
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.
Officials on Wednesday added that divers are not longer able to access areas where more vehicles and victims could be. As such, the operation is moving to cleaning up and removing debris, after which divers will again be deployed to look for bodies in vehicles and in the vicinity.
The bodies of the four remaining workers are likely stuck under concrete and metal from the bridge, Butler said.
‘We have exhausted all search efforts in the area around this wreckage,’ he said.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore shared more details on the minutes leading up to the catastrophe. He again commended the ship crew’s mayday call which prompted emergency responders to stop traffic onto the bridge and move people off of it as the vessel approached.
‘One of the survivors, who I had the opportunity to speak with, one of the things he mentioned to me was as he was moving off of the bridge – and literally saw the bridge fall right after he moved off – it was because it was a first responder who was telling him to move off the bridge,’ said Moore.
That surviving worker said he heard the warning ‘audibly’, said the governor, adding an investigation continues into the events leading up to the collision that could reveal more details.
Tom Perez, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, said in Spanish: ‘Today is a very, very sad day for our state and for our country. The president understands well the suffering of the community and the president is offering prayers to the families of the victims.
‘President Biden understands well the need to construct the bridge, to build opportunities for all residents of Maryland and we will work together on this cause.’
Officials stressed that the aim is to reopen the area to shipping commerce as soon and as safely as possible.
On Tuesday, 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’.
The hospitalized victim was released on Wednesday.
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.’
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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