Truck recovered from river as search for victims continues, report says

Last updated: 2024/03/27 at 5:03 PM

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Gov. Wes Moore provides update on recovery efforts following Key Bridge collapse RELATED: Father of 3 was one of the Key Bridge collapse victims, organization says Watch: Video of Baltimore bridge coming down Baltimore Key Bridge Moment of Collapse Baltimore bridge mayday call RELATED: Ship’s mayday allowed “heroes” to stop traffic before Baltimore bridge collapse Timeline: Minute-by-minute breakdown of the Key Bridge collapse

WASHINGTON – Six people are now presumed dead following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge Tuesday.

The recovery efforts are ongoing as dive teams search for the construction workers, who had been part of an eight-person crew filling potholes on the bridge in the early morning hours when it collapsed, officials say.

The Associated Press reports that a truck was recovered around 10:30 a.m. That’s according to a Homeland Security memo that was described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official. AP says the official was not authorized to discuss details of the document or the investigation and spoke to them on the condition of anonymity.

Gov. Wes Moore spoke with FOX 5 Wednesday morning to provide an update on their search for the victims and praised the first responders for their work.

Gov. Wes Moore provides update on recovery efforts following Key Bridge collapse

Gov. Wes Moore spoke with FOX 5 to provide an update on the recovery effort as divers search for the six people presumed dead following the Key Bridge collapse.

“The dive team is in the water right now, as we speak,” he said. “These are difficult conditions. We’re talking about very frigid temperatures with high winds, and extraordinary darkness and trying to navigate mangled metal.”

The search and rescue mission was paused at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, about 18 hours after the collapse.

“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature at this point, we do not believe that we will find any of these individuals still alive,” Coast Guard Admiral Shannon Gilreath said during an evening press conference.

The bridge went down around 1:30 a.m. after it was hit by a large shipping container. The vessel lost power and was unable to steer. The ship’s crew sent out a mayday call moments before they eventually ran into a pillar of the bridge.

Shocking video showed the structure buckle and snap before sinking into the Patapsco River.

Watch: Video of Baltimore bridge coming down

Baltimore Key Bridge Moment of Collapse

A live stream camera captured the moment a cargo ship slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore causing it to collapse. (COURTESY: YOUTUBE / STREAM TIME LIVE)

First responders were able to pull two people from the river almost immediately. One of those rescued was taken to Baltimore’s Shock Trauma Center and has since been released. The second person declined treatment.

Officials still have not confirmed if there are any other suspected victims but did say that sonar indicated several vehicles were in the water following the collapse. Any vehicles that did plunge into the river could possibly belong to the workers who were filling potholes when the crash happened.

Baltimore bridge mayday call

Moore says the mayday call sent out by the ship gave police a chance to stop more traffic from getting onto the bridge.

“When the call came in, really, the heroic effort was of the first responders. The first responders were the ones who, once that mayday call came in, were able to immediately start mobilizing, getting people off the bridge, begin to alert the workers and also making sure that they were stopping the flow of traffic that was coming,” Moore said.

The governor said he spoke with the survivor who was taken to the hospital in serious condition. He has since been released and told the governor about the quick response from police.

“He spoke about a police officer who was telling him ‘come off of the bridge,’ and he spoke about how he was coming off of the bridge and literally, he heard a rumbling and he felt a rumbling, and he turned around and just saw the bridge collapse right behind him. So, he knows he was steps away from falling into the water,” Moore said. “He was just very grateful for the quick response of those first responders.”

FOX 5 asked NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy about that mayday call and if the NTSB knows if there were any other warnings, such as a horn, to issue a warning. She said that is part of the NTSB’s investigation and that they hope to build out a more detailed timeline by the end of the day.

Homendy added that NTSB crews will remain on scene for five to 10 days to investigate. She says the preliminary report will be released in two to four weeks, but said the full investigation could take anywhere from 12 to 24 months to complete.