Hours after the devastating collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, a survivor details watching the cargo ship Dali get closer to the structure before impact.
While speaking to CNN’s Phil Mattingly, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stated he had a “pretty remarkable conversation” with one of the bridge collapse survivors. The politician shared that the individual said it was “but for the grace of God that he was there.”
“You know, he talked about the moments before and how close that he physically was by being captured,” Moore explained. “Because when you saw the moments between when the crew called for a mayday and the moments that the bridge actually collapsed, we’re talking seconds.”
Gov. Moore said he and Lieutenant Gov. Aruna Miller had the opportunity to speak with the Baltimore bridge collapse survivor. “It really is pretty miraculous when you consider what happened,” Moore continued. “And the speed and the intensity at which it happened last night.”
When Mattingly asked if, given how fast the cargo ship had been traveling, the bridge workers had a chance to see it before impact. “The individual actually shared with me that he did see the ship,” Moore explained. “That it was coming.”
Gov. Moore further shared the “brave” workers regularly operate in “challenging conditions” and they see ships coming “every night.”
“That was a normal routine,” Moore noted. “But when you see the size, the enormity of that kind of vessel, coming at the speed that it was at, and even the slightest adjustments that you saw here means the difference between a successful passage and catastrophe. And unfortunately, what we saw last night was a catastrophe.”
U.S. Coast Guard Declared the Six Missing After Baltimore Bridge Collapse Dead
Unfortunately, the U.S. Coast Guard announced on Tuesday evening that due to weather and water conditions, it had to presume that the six missing after the Baltimore bridge collapse have perished.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral, Shannon N. Gilreath made the official announcement. “I’d like to announce tonight that based on the length of time that we’ve gone on this search, the extensive search efforts that we’ve put into it, the water temperature, at this point we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individual still alive.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott further described the bridge collapse as an “unthinkable and unspeakable tragedy.”
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair, Jennifer Homendy stated that search teams are continuing to verify the numbers of how many vehicles and people were on the bridge during the collapse.
Officials have stated that the collapse was an accident and there is no suspected terrorism involved. Videos of the accident showed that the ship experienced some power issues just before impact.