Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses after hit by ship

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A major bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, partially collapsed Tuesday morning, possibly leaving a number of people in the river below, authorities said.

A spokesperson for Baltimore Police Department told NBC News that it had been notified of the incident at the Francis Scott Key Bridge, an enormous steel structure which carries the Interstate 695 over the Patapsco River southeast of the Baltimore metropolitan area.

“I can confirm at 1:35 a.m., Baltimore City police were notified of a partial bridge collapse, with workers possibly in the water, at the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Detective Niki Fennoy said in a statement.



Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. said on X that he was aware of the incident and in touch with the fire service chief, the mayor of Baltimore and other local officials. "Please pray for those impacted," he said.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott said on X he was on his way to the bridge. "Emergency personnel are on scene, and efforts are underway," he said.

Firefighters were searching for at least seven people believed to be in the water, Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told the Associated Press around 3 a.m.

Built in 1977 and referred to locally as the Key Bridge it later named after the author of the American national anthem. The bridge is more than 8,500 feet, or 1.2 miles, long in total. Its main section spans 1,200 feet and was one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world upon its completion, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.

Rescue workers in Baltimore are searching for as many as seven people after a major bridge in the city’s port was struck by a container ship early Tuesday, officials said. It is an “active search and rescue” situation, the city’s fire chief said, and the number of missing people could change.

Two people have been saved from the water so far, Baltimore Fire Department Chief James Wallace said.

Video shows the collapse of the 1.6-mile-long, four-lane bridge after it was hit by the vessel. An official told CNN conditions were unsafe for rescuers due to objects hanging from the structure, freezing conditions and limited visibility.

The bridge extends over the Patapsco River and serves as the outermost crossing of the Baltimore harbor. It is an essential link of Interstate-695, or the Baltimore Beltway.

No indication of "terrorism" or intent in Baltimore bridge collapse, police chief says
Baltimore Police said there was no evidence that the ship collision that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was intentional.

“There is absolutely no indication that there’s any terrorism, that this was done on purpose,” Chief Richard Worley said at a news conference.

The FBI said that it was joining the investigation into the cause of the collision.

Rescue crews have determined there are vehicles in the Patapsco River following the bridge collapse.

“Our sonar has detected the presence of vehicles submerged in the water,” said Fire Chief James Wallace. “I don’t have a count of that yet.”

Wallace said they are waiting to make sure that the ship is secure and stable before investigators board it.

“Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that,” Mayor Brandon M. Scott said.

Maryland transportation secretary says contractors were working on bridge at time of collapse
Maryland State Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld told reporters there were workers on the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the time of its collapse.

“We know there were individuals on the bridge at the time of the collapse, working on the bridge, contractors for us,” he said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Wiedefeld said the workers were “basically doing some concrete deck repair,” but said they did not know how many vehicles were involved.

He added that the transport authority has set up a facility for family members of those who were believed to be on the bridge at the time of its collapse.

Ship lights flickered and veered off course shortly before Baltimore bridge hit, CNN analysis shows
The Singaporean-flagged cargo ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Tuesday altered course and veered toward a pillar shortly before impact, a CNN analysis of MarineTraffic ship-tracking data confirms.

It’s unclear what caused the ship to crash into the bridge or why its lights were flickering. CNN has reached out to the National Transportation Safety Board to inquire about a possible power failure.

The container ship Dali, which was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, begins to change course toward the bridge’s pillar at 1:26 a.m. local time, striking the bridge at 1:28 a.m. ET, according to MarineTraffic data and video from the scene. Video from 1: 25 a.m. ET shows a plume of dark smoke billowing from the ship. Dali’s lights flicker at least twice before the incident.

In video, as it navigates down the Patapsco River, the ship’s lights can be seen going out at 1:24 a.m. ET, before turning back on, and then flickering off and on again between 1:26 a.m. ET and 1.27 a.m. ET, just before it hits the bridge.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency and said the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was most likely the result of an accident and not an act of terrorism.

"Our state is in shock," the governor said

Moore said the cargo ship Dali notified authorities that it had lost power and issued a mayday moments before the 984-foot vessel slammed into a bridge support at a speed of eight knots, which is about nine miles per hour.

Meanwhile, rescue crews using sonar detected at least five vehicles in the frigid 50-foot-deep water, including three passengers cars, a cement truck and another vehicle of some kind, Moore said. Authorities do not believe anyone was inside the vehicles.

An unknown number of workers were doing repairs on the bridge when the ship hit a support pillar, and at least six people were still believed to be missing, Moore said.

"This is still, very much, a search and rescue mission," he said during an afternoon news conference flanked by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.

An 'active search-and-rescue posture'
Earlier, two workers were rescued from the water, Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said.

One was in good condition and refused treatment, Wallace said. The other was seriously injured and was being treated in a trauma center.

Moore said there might be drivers in the water were it not for the “folks” who, upon hearing the mayday, blocked off the bridge and kept other cars from crossing.

“These people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives. They saved lives.”

Nearly eight years ago, the Dali was involved in another collision. In July 2016, the ship collided with a quay at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, damaging the quay.

The nautical commission investigated the accident, but the details of the probe were not immediately clear Tuesday.

The Dali is operated and managed by a company called Synergy Group. In a statement, the company said two port pilots were at the helm of the Dali at the time of Tuesday's crash and that all 22 crew members onboard were accounted for.

The bridge, which is about a mile-and-a-half long and carries Interstate 695 over the Patapsco River southeast of Baltimore, was "fully up to code," Moore said.

A 24-person team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators was already at the crash site.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said that her agency will lead the investigation into the cause of the bridge collapse. She said a data recorder on board the ship could provide more information about what happened.

"But right now we're focusing on the people, on the families," she said. "The rest can wait."

President Joe Biden vowed to rebuild the bridge and send federal funds.

"This is going to take some time," Biden warned. "The people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them, at every step of the way, till the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt."

Speaking in Baltimore, Buttigieg echoed the president's promise.

"This is no ordinary bridge," he said. "This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure."

But Buttigieg warned replacing the bridge and reopening the port will take time, cost money, and could affect supply chains.

The Port of Baltimore is the 11th largest in the U.S. and the busiest port for car imports and exports, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023 alone, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.

Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said the workers on the bridge were repairing concrete ducts when the ship crashed into the structure.

They were employed by Brawner Builders Inc. And at least seven workers were pouring concrete to fix potholes on the roadway on the bridge directly above where the ship hit, a foreman named James Krutzfeldt said.

Krutzfeldt, who was not working on that job, said one of the missing is another foreman whom he considers his mentor and “work dad.”

"I'm still kind of in shock," he said.

Earlier, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had received a report that a “motor vessel made impact with the bridge” and confirmed it was the Dali, a container ship sailing under a Singaporean flag that was heading for Sri Lanka.

’A long road in front of us'
Built in 1977 and referred to locally as the Key Bridge, the structure was later named after the author of the American national anthem.

The bridge is more than 8,500 feet long, or 1.2 miles. Its main section spans 1,200 feet and was one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world upon its completion, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.

About 31,000 vehicles a day use the bridge, which equals 11.3 million vehicles per year, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.

The river and the Port of Baltimore are both key to the shipping industry on the East Coast, generating more than $3.3 billion a year and directly employing more than 15,000 people.

Asked what people in Baltimore can expect going forward, the state's transportation secretary said it is too early to tell.

"Obviously we reached out to a number of engineering companies, so obviously we have a long road in front of us," Wiedefeld said.

Customers from the East Coast to the Midwest who were expecting goods shipped in via the Port of Baltimore could see significant cost increases as a result of Tuesday's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

In a statement released after the bridge collapsed early Tuesday, the American Trucking Association estimated some 4,900 trucks per day carrying an annual average of $28 billion worth of goods would have to be re-rerouted — at a cost to shippers and ultimately consumers.

“The Key Bridge and Port of Baltimore are critical components of our nation’s infrastructure and supply chain," the association said. "Aside from the obvious tragedy, this incident will have significant and long-lasting impacts on the region."

It noted the greatest impact is likely to be on shipments of hazardous materials, like diesel fuel, which are not allowed to be brought through tunnels.

The closure, the association said, will "add significant cost in time, fuel and delays for trucks traveling through the region, on top of the disruption that a closure of the Port of Baltimore will inflict on our economy."

“We urge state and federal government agencies to swiftly target appropriate resources to open the port and replace this bridge as quickly as possible,” the association said.

A spokesperson for the Council on Safe Transportation of Hazardous Articles said it was declining to comment on the situation.

The incident comes as global supply chains are already in brittle shape from pandemic-related stresses and geopolitical changes.

“If this were the only issue, I think we’d be in a much better position," said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of the Association for Supply Chain Management. "The unfortunate circumstance is that we’ve been dealing with multiple disruptions that have already stretched a system that is low on capacity.”

Baltimore is the largest entry point in the U.S. for large agriculture and construction equipment like tractors, farming combines, fork lifts, bulldozers and heavy-duty trucks that are bound for the Midwest, according to DAT Freight and Analytics, a freight-exchange service.

Any disruption to agriculture and construction equipment shipments would come at a particularly bad time as Midwest farmers have begun to plant this year’s crops, while construction picks up in colder climates as the ground begins to thaw, said Dean Croke, principal analyst with DAT.

“I think it has a huge economic impact on the farming industry,” said Croke. “This is peak planting season in the Midwest and peak machinery import season. March is the biggest month for machinery shipments into the U.S. via Baltimore.”

Companies may have to reroute their shipments to nearby ports, like those in Georgia or Florida, he said. That will mean higher freight shipping costs as trucks have to travel further and may have to wait longer to pick up their loads if those ports become congested, said Croke.

The complete collapse of the bridge means it could take up to a year for normal logistics patterns to return, said Tinglong Dai, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

It's very difficult to estimate the [shipping] cost impact, but it’s fair to say it's going to be costlier to transport autos and trucks to and from the U.S. in the short term because of the oversize impact on the port of Baltimore," he said.

Baltimore is also the No. 1 automobile port in the U.S. Other Eastern Seaboard ports are expected to be able to shoulder some Baltimore-bound auto shipments, said Emily Stausbøll, market analyst with the shipping group Xeneta, which could limit the impact on global shipping rates.

“However, there is only so much port capacity available and this will leave supply chains vulnerable to any further pressure,” Stausbøll wrote in a note to clients.

In an interview with CNBC, Richard Meade, the editor-in-chief of Lloyd's list, a shipping journal, said: “It will be expensive but it is not a supply chain story like the EverGiven (which was stuck in the Suez Canal) because ocean carriers will find alternative routes,” said Meade. “Logistically, ocean carriers and trucking have the ability to be pretty adapt and agile.”

A spokesperson for the port of Norfolk, Virginia — another major terminal along the East Coast — said its team was already working with ocean carriers whose vessels were bound for Baltimore to see about rerouting south.

"The Port of Virginia has a significant amount of experience in handling surges of import and export cargo and is ready to provide whatever assistance we can to the team at the Port of Baltimore,” the spokesperson said.

Some automakers said there may not be a major impact.

A General Motors spokesperson said it expected the incident to have a minimal affect on its operations, and that it was working to re-reroute vehicle shipments to other ports.

A BMW spokesperson said that its receiving terminal is located at the Baltimore harbor’s entrance in front of the bridge and was still accessible.

“We do not expect this morning’s tragedy in Baltimore to have any immediate impact on our business, other than short term traffic delays,” the BMW spokesperson said in an email.

Other companies with significant operations in the port area said the impact from the collapse would be minimal. In a statement, a Home Depot representative said its distribution centers in the area remained open and operating.

Amazon, which also has a major distribution center at the port, declined to specify what, if any, effects there might be.

"We’re assessing the immediate and future impacts to our employees and delivery partners, as well as the surrounding community and will make any adjustments to our operations that are needed," an Amazon rep said in an emailed statement.

The remains of two people who were killed after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed when it was struck by the container ship yesterday have been recovered. Four others are presumed dead.

The victims were construction workers were on the bridge filling potholes when the span was struck. Two people were rescued from the water, with one treated at a local trauma center.

The ship lost power, and a distress call prompted authorities to close the bridge to traffic. Video of the ship, emergency radio transmissions and analysis by maritime veterans paint a picture of a disastrous scenario — one that could have been much worse.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told NBC News today that the agency has recovered the Dali's voyage recorder data.

Diversity, equity and inclusion has become such a flashpoint across the country that a politician in Utah, state Rep. Phil Lyman, inferred it was the reason a huge container ship plowed into and knocked down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, leaving six people presumed dead.

“This is what happens when you have governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing and security of citizens,” said Lyman, a Republican running for governor, said in a post on X.

Lyman’s post included a retweet of the Young Conservative Federation, which wrote: “Let’s meet the Commissioners for the Port of Baltimore, starting with Karenthia A. Barber. She knows nothing about Ports, but she is a ‘diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) auditor and consultant.’”

A photo and bio of Barber, a Black woman, was included in the post.

Later, Lyman posted: “DEI=DIE.”

Barber is one of six commissioners serving at least three-year terms overseeing the Port of Baltimore. In addition to work on DEIB training, coaching and consulting, Barber’s bio includes experience teaching on the university level and being the first female chair of the board of Maryland Automobile Insurance. The other five commissioners’ bios say they also have a range of career experience, including in maritime science, shipping, the airline industry, corporate law and Maryland’s department of transportation.

But Lyman, in talking to The Salt Lake City Tribune, blamed the posts on his social media staff, saying he did not approve the post before it went live.

“It was not our best moment,” he told the newspaper. “The post was a knee-jerk reaction to some of the things others were putting out there.”

“I prefer a dignified approach and sometimes the people who handle the social media are more provocative than what I’m comfortable with,” Lyman said.

The posts were still visible on Lyman’s account as of Wednesday afternoon, including one that called DEI “poison” and another retweet stating “DEI = Didn’t Earn It.”

No one has told us who took that video. Just happening to be standing at some vantage point south of the Bridge with his/her camera pointed in the right direction at the right time.