Today at half past one (local time, hours 6:30 in Italy) the Dali cargo shipflying the Singapore flag, hit a pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge to Baltimorein the USA, causing the partial collapse of the bridge, which lasted about 20 seconds. The ship, which had just left the port of Baltimore, became stuck and would have caught fire. According to initial reports of the accident, at least 7 vehicles (including probably a truck) have fallen into the Patapsco River and remains the number of victims is unknown: a spokesperson for the local fire brigade speaks of approx 20 people in the waterat least 7 missing and fuel slicks in the river. The news is also confirmed by the city mayor Brandon Scott who went to the scene of the disaster. Baltimore police and firefighters are on site to rescue and recover the missing.
The dynamics of the accident is also uncertain. In the videos released online, coming from a security camera, they are seen shortly before the accident all the lights on the ship go out. The lights then turn back on briefly and then turn off again just before the ship turn slightly in the direction of one of the pillars of the bridge, and then impacted on it, thus causing the collapse of the structure. We then see flames above the ship and it comes to a complete stop. As soon as the situation allows, an investigation will be launched into the structural conditions of the bridge and the possible causes of the accident. At the moment, neither the hypothesis of failure nor that of human error can be ruled out.
According to what was reported by the Marine Traffic portal, the ship in question would be the From there, approximately long 300 metersflying the flag of Singapore and that it should have arrived in Sri Lanka on April 22nd at approximately 4.30pm. Again according to the same portal, other Navy and Fire Brigade boats are already present on site, as can be seen in this image from the Vessel Finder portal.
From a technical point of view, the Francis Scott Key Bridge it was a truss bridge approximately in length 2.6 kmopened in 1977, which was part of Interstate 695a ring road of the city.
