IMinutes before Dali's container ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, there were to be dramatic scenes on board and on the bridge. “Stop all traffic on the bridge. An unmanageable ship is approaching,” a member of the rescue service warned over the radio Tuesday morning after the crew of the nearly 300-meter-long ship made an emergency call.

After the power cut, the full cargo drifted towards the Dali Bridge at a speed of about 15 kilometers per hour. As emergency services announced on Wednesday, they managed to close the almost 2.5 kilometer long metal structure over the Patapsco River to cars and trucks.

The warning came too late for the construction workers

But the warning came too late for eight construction workers repairing the surface of the four-lane I-695 freeway in the middle of the Key Bridge. Two workers were rescued from the frigid water with injuries within minutes of the bridge collapsing around 1.30am. Six of his colleagues were still missing on Wednesday evening. “Given the duration and intensity of the search and the temperature of the water, we do not expect to find him alive,” said a US Coast Guard rear admiral.

A team from the National Transportation Safety Board began looking for clues to the cause of the crash. The data logger, the black box, should now be evaluated. The Wall Street Journal cited contaminated fuel as a possible cause of the crash. The approximately 20 crew members of the Singapore-flagged vessel en route to Sri Lanka suffered a complete engine and power failure in the minutes before the 47-year-old man collided with the pillar. bridge.