A safety investigation has been launched into Tuesday’s tragedy in Baltimore that saw the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse after a cargo ship collided with it early in the morning.
Investigators have said that they will be looking into whether contaminated fuel was a factor in the ship that crashed and if the bridge was in proper condition.
Video of the crash and collapse have circulated the internet, showing the ship losing power several times before the incident and then the bridge buckling and dropping into the water below.
Search and rescue missions were ongoing all day Tuesday as the United States Coast Guard attempted to find six people who were unaccounted for after the collapse. However, the mission has switched to recovery, as the six people missing have been determined dead.
Now, eyes will turn to the bridge and ship, the Dali, and whether or not both were up to code.
As for the bridge, during its last federal inspection, it scored a six out of nine, giving it a “fair” rating, the same condition it had been in since 2008, CBS Baltimore reported.
While the bridge passed inspection in May 2022, there was concern about one of its columns, which was downgraded from a rating of 77.8 to 65.9.
It has not been made clear whether the column that was downgraded was the one hit by the Dali on Tuesday.
But while some concerns about the bridge’s condition are being raised, some experts are questioning whether it matters.
“This is a unique circumstance,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Tuesday. “I do not know of a bridge that has been constructed to withstand a direct impact from a vessel of this size. Anytime anything happens to any bridge, we as a country take that and learn from it.”
As for the cargo ship, an officer on the vessel on Tuesday reported that it “went dead, no steering power and no electronics.”
“One of the engines coughed and then stopped. The smell of burned fuel was everywhere in the engine room, and it was pitch black,” the officer said.
Contaminated fuel could be a reason for the ship’s blackout, as it can cause problems in the ship’s main power generators, according to naval architect Fotis Pagoulatos, who spoke with CBS News.
Pagoulatos added that a blackout could result in the ship losing propulsion and that smaller generators on board don’t have the ability to carry all the functions that the main generators do.
Either way, Jennifer Homendy, the chief of the National Transportation Safety Board, shared that it will be reviewing all operations and the safety record of the ship.
As of now, the investigations remain ongoing into the incident.