Baltimore Key Bridge collapse full coverage: 2 bodies recovered; remaining workers presumed dead as cleanup effort continues

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The bodies of two people who were killed when Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed earlier this week have been recovered, police said on Wednesday.

Authorities said eight workers were on the bridge fixing potholes when a Singapore-flagged cargo ship called the Dali struck one of the bridge's pillars, causing it to collapse. In addition to the two bodies recovered, two of the workers were rescued, and four people remain missing and are presumed dead.

There is no immediate timeline on when the bridge — which spans a major thoroughfare of East Coast shipping — could be rebuilt. According to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, President Biden has instructed his staff to "move heaven and earth" to rebuild the bridge.

Jennifer Homendy, the National Transportation Safety Board chair, said investigators on Thursday were planning to interview the two pilots who were aboard the Dali at the time of the crash.

LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER123 updates

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 5:25 PM EDT

  Here's what we know about the recovery effort

  People look toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge following its collapse after the Singapore-flagged Dali container ship collided with it along the Patapsco River on Tuesday in Baltimore. (AFP)

  • Julio Cervantes, one of eight construction workers who were plunged into the Patapsco River when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning, did not know how to swim, according to his wife.

  • Speaking Thursday at Camden Yards baseball park alongside the ownership group of the Baltimore Orioles, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called on citizens to lend a hand in helping with the arduous task of rebuilding the fallen bridge.

  • The Orioles kicked off the 2024 season on Thursday with a moment of silence to honor the victims of the bridge collapse.

  • The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a native of Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Guatemala were recovered Wednesday, ABC News reported.

  • Family members of the men still missing but presumed dead have not given up hope.

  • Maryland officials asked the Biden administration Thursday for the "quick release" of an initial $60 million in emergency relief that would go toward recovery efforts.

  Read more from Yahoo News.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 5:01 PM EDT

  Officers who stopped traffic to bridge before collapse honored at Orioles game

  Three Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers who were responsible for stopping traffic onto the Francis Scott Key Bridge before it collapsed Tuesday morning were honored during the third inning of Thursday's Orioles game in Baltimore.

  The officers were identified as Sergeant Paul Pastorek, Corporal Jeremy Herbert and Officer Garry Kirts.

  In a joint statement, they said that "no amount of training could have prepared anyone for the events that took place on the Francis Scott Key Bridge."

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 4:55 PM EDT

  Brawner worker told CNN he requested last-minute shift change on night of bridge collapse

  A man employed by Brawner Builders, the employer of the workers who were victims of the bridge collapse, told CNN he requested a last-minute shift change the night of the accident.

  Moises Diaz said the decision saved his life. He also told CNN via text that he had worked with all six of the men who were victims. The bodies of two of the men were recovered on Wednesday.

  Brawner Builders Executive Vice President Jeffrey Pritzker had told CNN, "These were wonderful young men. They were doing a tough job. These guys were hardworking, wonderful people, and now they're gone."

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 4:44 PM EDT

  Baltimore bridge collapse calls attention to growing Latino labor force, risks they face

  A cargo ship is stuck under part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. (Steve Helber/AP)

  Most of the six construction workers who were killed or presumed dead following Tuesday's bridge collapse were originally from Latin American countries, calling attention to the growing Latino labor force in the U.S. and the risks they face.

  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor considers construction "a high hazard industry," in which workers face serious risks like being hit by heavy construction equipment or being hurt or killed by unguarded machinery.

  Latinos make up about a third of the U.S.'s construction workers, meaning they are more exposed to these dangers.

  NBC News reports:

  With 1,056 fatalities, workers in the construction and extraction industries had the second most fatalities in 2022, followed by transportation and material moving workers, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released in December.

  At least 423 of these workers died due to falls, slips or trips, according to BLS.

  The majority of these deaths, at least 286, happened among Hispanic workers.

  Read more from NBC News.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 4:14 PM EDT

  People try to get a glimpse of the Dali cargo ship

  People are trying to view the Dali cargo ship wreckage on Thursday, two days after it crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

  Spectators attempt to get a close look at the cargo ship Dali from the Broening Highway in Baltimore. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 3:59 PM EDT

  The Dali cargo ship that hit the Key Bridge was pretty big, but not that big

  The Dali cargo ship. (Maryland National Guard via AP)

  The Dali cargo ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, leading to its collapse, was about the length and width of three football fields. It can carry nearly 10,000 containers of cargo, weighing up to 116,000 tons.

  Pretty massive, right? In comparison to other ships, it's actually not that big.

  The largest container ships can hold twice the number of containers carried by the Dali, the New York Times reports.

  As global demand has grown for clothes, electronics and other goods, so have the size of cargo ships. The more a ship can hold, the more cost-effective the trip becomes.

  As container ships have increased in size, ports, including Baltimore's, have had to adapt by expanding infrastructure to accommodate them, according to the Times.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 3:29 PM EDT

  Baltimore Orioles hold moment of silence for victims on Opening Day

  The Baltimore Orioles kicked off the 2024 Major League Baseball season with a moment of silence to honor of the victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Elizabeth Worthington, a reporter for WMAR-2 News Baltimore, posted this video on X of Camden Yards on Opening Day Thursday:

  A moment of silence for the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse victims at Camden Yards.

  The announcer noted - we're taking this moment before the performance of the Star-Spangled Banner, whose author the bridge was named after. @WMAR2News pic.twitter.com/Sgw5Lvu9Dp

  — Elizabeth Worthington (@ElizWorthNews) March 28, 2024

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 3:11 PM EDT

  Bridge collapse disrupts automobile shipments at Port of Baltimore

  Manufacturers and shippers have been scrambling after the bridge collapse disrupted shipping at the Port of Baltimore. The port, which handles the largest amount of vehicles in the U.S., has suspended ship traffic "until further notice."

  The state of Maryland reported that in 2023, the port moved 847,158 automobiles. Baltimore can still handle some automobile shipments because part of its operations are in a different area, east of where the bridge collapsed.

  Autoblog reports:

  • Both General Motors and Ford planned to reroute impacted shipments away from Baltimore's port

  • Volkswagen Group of America said its operations have not been impacted because its facility is located east of the bridge collapse

  • BMW said its operations shouldn't be impacted because they also have operations east of the bridge

  • Mercedes-Benz said it's too early to tell if operations will be impacted

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 2:49 PM EDT

  In Baltimore, the youngest mayor faces his city's moment of tragedy and of triumph

  Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott speaks at a news conference on Wednesday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

  Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott became the youngest mayor in the city's history at 36 years old when he won the race in November 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. His phone rang in the middle of the night on Tuesday to the news that a massive container ship lost control, causing the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

  USA Today reports:

  Nobody knew, in those first predawn moments, how many people might have been killed, or what would happen next.

  "This is a tragedy that you could never imagine," Scott said Tuesday, during a news conference. "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."

  Reporters immediately wanted to know about the future, about the rebuilding of the bridge. Scott wanted to remain rooted in the present. He was emotional.

  "We shouldn't even be having that discussion right now," he said. "The discussion right now should be about the people, the souls, the lives that we're trying to save."

  "There will be a time to discuss a bridge and how we get a bridge back up," Scott said. "But right now there are people in the water that we have to get out, and that is the only thing we should be talking about."

  Read more from USA Today.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 2:26 PM EDT

  8 construction workers were taking a break from fixing potholes when bridge collapsed, one wife says

  The cargo ship that crashed into the Key Bridge on Tuesday. (NTSB via AP)

  The wife of one of the eight people who were fixing potholes on the Key Bridge on Tuesday said the workers were taking a break when the bridge came crashing down.

  "All of the men were on a break in their cars when the boat hit. We don't know if they were warned before the impact," the wife of Julio Cervantes, a construction worker, told NBC News.

  Cervantes was one of the two people rescued on Tuesday. His wife said he didn't know how to swim.

  "It is a miracle he survived," she added.

  Read more from NBC News here.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 2:10 PM EDT

  Maryland requests $60 million from Biden administration for bridge collapse relief

  Maryland officials have asked for a "quick release" of $60 million from the Biden administration for an initial emergency relief request.

  The Maryland Department of Transportation and Maryland Transportation Authority made the request on Thursday following the collapse of the Key Bridge — an essential bridge used by tens of thousands of drivers each day — on Tuesday.

  Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld wrote in a letter: "We are performing damage assessments throughout the area.

  "Currently, it is not possible to provide exact cost estimates for the full assessment; however, our current estimate for mobilization, operators, and debris recovery is $60 million," he said, noting that the agencies would "provide a second need estimate as early as reasonably possible."

  President Biden has said he wants the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.

  "We're going to work with our partners in Congress to make sure the state gets the support it needs," he said Tuesday. "It's my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort."

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 1:38 PM EDT

  New NTSB footage shows vessel intertwined with bridge wreckage

  National Transportation Safety Board investigators boarded the Dali cargo ship on Wednesday and released footage of the vessel after its deadly crash into the Key Bridge earlier this week.

  Video shows the NTSB team using drones to survey the wreckage from the ship. The drone shots show the aftermath of the Singapore-flagged vessel's collision with the 1.6-mile-long bridge.

  Watch the video here:

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 1:17 PM EDT

  Families of bridge collapse victims speak out: 'Tremendous agony'

  Miguel Luna, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval and Dorlian Cabrera. (Facebook, Family handout, Facebook)

  Four people remain missing after Tuesday's bridge collapse. Among those is 40-year-old Miguel Luna, a father of three who came to the U.S. from El Salvador 19 years ago in hopes of a better life.

  "He's supposed to come in the morning back home, and [he] never come," Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA, a nonprofit human rights organization that advocates for immigrant communities, told CBS News.

  Another missing person who was working on the bridge was Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, a father to a teenage son and a 5-year-old daughter. The Honduran citizen was days away from turning 35 years old.

  Sandoval's eldest brother told CBS News that their family is in "tremendous agony."

  One day after the tragic bridge collapse, Maryland authorities identified two of the six victims who were unaccounted for following the accident as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, originally from Mexico, and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, from Guatemala. Divers discovered their bodies in a pickup truck submerged in the Patapsco River.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 12:51 PM EDT

  Baltimore residents 'stand ready to help' after bridge collapse

  People at a prayer vigil on Thursday. (Julia Nikhinson/Reuters)

  Eight construction workers were on the bridge when it collapsed into the Patapsco River on Tuesday. Two of the workers were rescued. Police said Wednesday that they had discovered the bodies of two of the six people presumed dead.

  Spiritual leaders all over Baltimore have offered their support to the families impacted by the accident, and residents have donated thousands of dollars in a show of support and solidarity.

  Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus, told USA Today, "These families need a lot, a lot of support on all levels — spiritual, physical and emotional."

  Ever since the tragedy began to unfold, Walker said he's been looking for ways to help the families who have been impacted and the community. "One of the things you unfortunately have to think about when the bodies are recovered are the funerals," he said. "We stand ready to help."

  Read more from USA Today.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 12:34 PM EDT

  Barges now head to Baltimore to clear bridge wreckage

  Wreckage from the Francis Scott Key Bridge is now in the Patapsco River. (Maryland National Guard via AP)

  The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday night that huge barges carrying cranes were heading to the Baltimore area to start clearing the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from the Patapsco River.

  When the 1.6-mile-long bridge — which saw around 30,000 vehicles cross it daily — collapsed on Tuesday, it sent steel wreckage down into the river below. That wreckage created an obstacle for divers searching for victims.

  The wreckage also blocks cargo and other ships from accessing the Port of Baltimore, which is closed to vessel traffic "until further notice."

  Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, said during a news conference on Wednesday: "We're now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. Because of the superstructure surrounding what we believe are the vehicles and the amount of concrete and debris, divers are no longer able to safely navigate or operate around that."

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 11:48 AM EDT

  Moment of silence held for bridge collapse victims at Orioles event

  Rob Long, a broadcaster with the Baltimore Orioles, held a moment of silence during an event on Thursday, which is Major League Baseball's opening day.

  "We would like to take a moment to acknowledge the tragedy that took place at the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday morning. Our hearts go out to the victims and to their families.

  "While we mourn their losses, we have immense gratitude for our leaders, including Gov. Wes Moore, who's here today, and the many first responders who continue to risk their lives in hopes of returning more people home. Anyone here today knows ... that Baltimoreans are strong and we are resilient, and together we will get through this. Can you please join me right now in a moment of silence."

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 11:36 AM EDT

  Maryland governor calls on Baltimoreans to 'do their part' in rebuilding bridge, city

  Speaking at an event with the Baltimore Orioles ownership group at Camden Yards on Thursday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore spoke about the bridge's collapse:

  "I'm calling on everybody to do their part. In this game, nobody gets to sit on the sidelines. We need every single Baltimorean and we need every single Marylander to join us in this work to rebuild this bridge and rebuild this city.

  "And that work is happening as we speak. The best minds in the world are coming together to collect the information that we need to move forward with speed and safety in our response to this collapse. Government is working hand in hand with industry to investigate the area, to clear the wreck and to move the ship. Leaders from across local and state and federal levels are gathering funds to rebuild this bridge.

  "This work is not going to take hours. This work is not going to take days. This work is not going to take weeks. We have a very long road ahead of us."

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 11:32 AM EDT

  The Baltimore bridge collapse has raised questions about key safety features. Experts say better ones may not have helped.

  Following Tuesday's bridge collapse, some say protective structures could have helped shield it. But others are saying that's unrealistic given the impact of the massive cargo ship.

  Business Insider reports:

  Key Bridge, built in 1977, was finished before the reform [a federal memo from 1983 recommending that bridges be built with protective structures] was published. Still, footage suggests it had some protection in place.

  Small dolphins [protective structures] were placed about 320 feet upstream and downstream of the piers, Colin Caprani, associate professor of civil engineering, said in a post in The Conversation.

  The bridge also had concrete "fenders," timber and concrete structures placed around the piers, Caprani added.

  In 1980, a container ship called the Blue Nagoya ran into the bridge at a speed of 12 knots. One fender was damaged badly enough that it had to be replaced.

  Still, faced with a ship of the size of the Dali, they would likely not have been fit for purpose, Mimi Gao, a naval architect with the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration, told Business Insider.

  Read more from BI.

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 10:50 AM EDT

  Somber scenes in Baltimore

  Tuesday's bridge collapse has left members of Baltimore's community reeling. Eight workers were on the bridge when it crumbled into the Patapsco River. Two bodies have since been recovered, while the other four workers are presumed dead.

  During a vigil this week at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Dundalk, pastor Rashad Singletary said, "We want to be able to provide support."

  "Not just for today and a couple of weeks, but after the cameras are gone, after the services are gone. We need to not only build a bridge, but to build this community."

  The collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is seen from Fort McHenry, in Baltimore. (Julia Nikhinson/Reuters)

  People look at the collapsed Key Bridge while visiting Fort McHenry, in Baltimore. (Julia Nikhinson/Reuters)

  Boats work near the Key Bridge wreckage on Wednesday. (Matt Rourke/AP)

• Thu, March 28, 2024 at 10:30 AM EDT

  'The 5 Minutes That Brought Down the Key Bridge'

  The New York Times has a powerful report on the last moments before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed:

  In those minutes, many people — from the ship's crew, who sent out a mayday signal, to the transportation authority police officers, who stopped traffic heading onto the Francis Scott Key Bridge — did what they could to avert catastrophe, most likely saving many lives.

  And yet — no matter what anyone did — several factors made catastrophe all but inevitable.

  Click here to read the full story.