Focus on Arts and Ecology

Maryland's Francis Scott Key Bridge was struck by a container ship before collapsing into the river.

By Matt Novak, March 26, 2024

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed in the early morning hours of Tuesday, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. The cause of the collapse was a container ship striking a column, which sent the bridge into the water of the Patapsco River below. The entire thing was captured on video during a livestream.

The YouTube livestream, maintained by StreamTime Live, is one of at least nine currently broadcasting, with others showing places like New York Harbor, Port Huron in Michigan, and Chicago’s Midway Airport. The livestream didn’t capture any audio of the bridge collapse in Baltimore.

The Associated Press reports that several vehicles fell into the water, a claim supported by the video evidence. Early reports from the Baltimore Sun indicated there may have been at least seven construction workers on the bridge when it was hit, but that number was revised up to eight, with six people who remain unaccounted for.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a press conference Tuesday morning that the ship lost power and a mayday call gave some warning that allowed nearby workers to stop more cars from driving over the bridge. One person went to the hospital with injuries from the collapse and a second person did not need to go to the hospital, according to officials during the press conference.

“This is a place that is a normal commute route for over 30,000 Marylanders every single day. And so to hear the words that the Key Bridge has collapsed, it’s shocking and heartbreaking,” Moore said.

The ship lost power “a few minutes” before striking the bridge, according to an unnamed senior U.S. official who spoke with USA Today on Tuesday morning.

Video shared by the news aggregator Raw Alerts on X appeared to show another angle on the bridge collapse, with someone in the background shouting obscenities. And while it looks like the same bridge, it’s not clear who originally captured the video. Aggregator accounts on X often post images and videos without explaining their sources, which tends to allow misinformation to spread in a breaking news situation.

Another now-deleted video, captured by Facebook user Bobby Gattus, showed the aftermath of the bridge collapse. Several aircraft appear to be shining their lights into the water, presumably to search for any survivors.

“Absolutely mind-blowing... see all the containers crushed by the bridge,” Gattus says in the video. “Absolutely devastating.”

Adam Parker, an open-source investigator from the UK’s Sky News first identified the container ship that hit the bridge as the Singapore-flagged Dali. Shortly after 4:30 a.m. ET, the Dali reported that all crew members, including two pilots, were accounted for and there were no injuries, according to the New York Times.

The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon M. Scott, tweeted early Tuesday he was in contact with the governor of Maryland as well as emergency responders. And local traffic has been alerted to avoid the southeast corridor of I-695.

“MAJOR BALTIMORE TRAFFIC ALERT: AVOID I-695 southeast corridor. I-695 Key Bridge collapse due to ship strike. Active scene. Use I-95 or I-895,” Maryland Transportation Authority tweeted at 3:20 a.m. ET.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set a restriction for drone pilots in the area, according to a tweet from the agency’s X account Tuesday morning.

“Drone pilots: The FAA has flight restrictions in place around the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Do not interfere with rescue operations. If you fly, emergency response operations cannot,” the FAA tweeted.

The four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge, often shortened to just the Key Bridge and named for the author of the National Anthem, opened in 1977 and stretches 1.6 miles.

There were, of course, several conspiracy theories already floating around on X about the bridge collapse being “deliberate.” One user even called it “unthinkable” that such a thing could happen in the United States. But there have been at least 35 bridge failures in the U.S. since the year 2000, including many that didn’t even involve a ship running into them.

There’s absolutely no evidence of any grand conspiracy behind Tuesday’s bridge collapse in Baltimore. But that won’t stop a lot of people on social media from speculating wildly, as they always do.

(Sources: Gizmodo)