Pilots of the cargo ship that crashed into a major bridge in the U.S. city of Baltimore, Maryland, issued a mayday call shortly before the collision, enabling authorities to save lives, according to the state’s governor.

“We can confirm that the crew notified authorities of a power issue,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore told reporters Tuesday morning, hours after the incident. Moore said the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali had no power before smashing into one of two main columns supporting the Francis Scott Key Bridge and causing the bridge to collapse.

Moore said the crew’s warning enabled transportation officials to quickly halt traffic along the interstate highway crossing over the bridge.

“These people are heroes. They saved lives last night,” the governor said.

Even so, eight people on the bridge were believed to have plummeted into the Patapsco River during the incident, which occurred at 05:30 UTC, 1:30 a.m. local time, Tuesday.

Two of the people were rescued, with one transported to a trauma center in serious condition, while the other was uninjured. Searchers were continuing to look for the other six, with divers facing bone-chilling water temperatures of about 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit).

Video showed a large section of the bridge quickly collapsing into the river after the Dali collided with the support column. The vessel is 48 meters (157 feet) wide and 300 meters (984 feet) long and was loaded with cargo containers setting sail for Sri Lanka.

Authorities said several vehicles – perhaps five – were on the bridge when the collapse occurred.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement, “I’ve directed my administration to ensure every federal resource is available to assist search and rescue efforts and response to this terrible incident.”

Moore declared a state of emergency, and said the state is working “with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden administration.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the ship’s collision with the bridge “an unthinkable tragedy.” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said there is “no indication” the collision was intentional.

Synergy Marine Corp, managers of the Dali, issued a statement saying that all its crew members, including the two pilots on board and 20 crew members, were accounted for and there were no reports of injuries on board the vessel.

The 47-year-old, 2.5-kilometer-long Francis Scott Key bridge is a major link in the interstate highway that circles the city of Baltimore, which has one of the largest ports in the United States.

It was named after Francis Scott Key, the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a poem later set to music to eventually become the U.S. national anthem.

Key was inspired to write the poem after witnessing the British bombardment of a major U.S. military fort in Baltimore in 1814 during the war between the countries that began in 1812.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.

Source: VOA

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