Divers have recovered the bodies of two construction workers who went into the water in their pickup truck during the Baltimore bridge collapse earlier this week.
As per reports, cargo ship Dali hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of Tuesday morning on March 26. The collision occurred just prior to 1:30am in Maryland, USA, prompting a huge search and rescue operation amid the confusion and chaos.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are in the process of reviewing the voyage data recorder recovered by the Coast Guard in order to build a timeline of events regarding what caused the crash. Dali left Baltimore at 12:45am local time and was headed for Colombo, Sri Lanka before appearing to lose power minutes before it hit the bridge.
Reports claim at least eight people went into the water. Two were rescued, while a further two have now been found and identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, both of whom were working at the time of the incident.
Tragically, the remaining missing persons are now presumed dead.
“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search… (and) the water temperature… at this point we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath explained.
🚨BREAKING: The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland has collapsed after being struck by a Large Container Ship; a Mass Casualty Incident has been declared with over a dozen and many Individuals said to be in the water. pic.twitter.com/eDfSf5LMQL
— VINCENT OSHANA (@VincentOshana) March 26, 2024
Yesterday (Wednesday, March 27) Wes Moore, governor of Maryland, told reporters: “We’ve got to give these families closure.
“My promise to them is this: I will devote every single resource to make sure that you receive closure.”
Of the rescue divers he continued: “They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them.
“They are trying to navigate mangled metal, and they’re also in a place it is now presumed that people have lost their lives.”
One of the individuals yet missing is 49-year-old Miguel Luna, a husband and father of three originally from El Salvador, who had called Maryland his home for nearly twenty years.
Luna was part of the crew tasked with repairing potholes on the bridge when the collapse occurred, as per the BBC.
Miguel Luna’s wife, María del Carmen Castellón, expressed her devastation as the family anxiously awaited news amidst ongoing recovery efforts.
“They only tell us that we have to wait, that for now, they can’t give us information. [We feel] devastated, devastated because our heart is broken, because we don’t know if they’ve rescued them yet. We’re just waiting to hear any news,” Maria lamented in an interview with Telemundo 44.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives in this terrible accident, as well as those still anxiously waiting on news.
