March 27, 2024 - Baltimore Key Bridge collapse

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says if private companies are responsible for the Francis Scott Key Bridge cargo ship crash, they will be held responsible.

“To be clear: if any private party is responsible and accountable for this, then they will be held accountable," he told CNN. “But we can’t wait for that to play out to get to work right now,” he said.

Buttigieg predicted a “long road to recovery” for the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the Port of Baltimore, telling CNN Wednesday that getting the bridge back up and the port reopen will be a priority for the Biden administration.

When asked if he had any idea when the Patapsco River channel might reopen, Buttigieg said he did not have an estimated time, but was working with relevant authorities, including the US Coast Guard, to get it open as soon as possible. He noted that the conditions of the remaining pier will also impact that timeline.

Buttigieg also warned of disruptions to supply chains in the near-term: “The impact of this incident is going to be felt throughout the region and really throughout our supply chains. We're talking about the biggest vehicle-handling port in the country that is now out of commission until that channel can be cleared — and a bridge that took five years to build.”

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told CNN this morning that interviews with crew members will begin later today.

"With respect to those on the vessel, we will also interview fire and rescue and and people that were on the bridge as well," she said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told CNN that investigators were able to board the Dali ship overnight.

“Some investigators boarded late last night to look at the engine room, the bridge and gather any sort of electronics or documentation," Homendy said on CNN News Central Wednesday morning.

“Right now, we do have the data record, which is essentially the ‘black box,’” Homendy added. “We’ve sent that back to our lab to evaluate and begin to develop a timeline of events that led up to the strike on the bridge.” She added that investigators should have information from the vessel's black box later today.

Homendy said that a team of 24 investigators will be returning to the ship this morning, with a focus on collecting the perishable evidence, including pictures of the vessel.

CNN’s Andy Rose contributed reporting to this post.

Councilman for Baltimore's fourth district, Mark Conway, said the Port of Baltimore will continue to operate despite the Key Bridge collapse.

Speaking to CNN, Conway said ships will still be able to move through the port, but larger cargo items will have to wait until the bridge debris is cleared.

"And there's still at this point, no telling how long that may take," he said.

The response to a bridge failure in Minneapolis 17 years ago, one of the most catastrophic in recent memory, could serve as a roadmap for Baltimore after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

On August 1, 2007, when cars were bumper-to-bumper in evening rush hour traffic along Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, the eight-lane bridge failed and collapsed into the Mississippi River and railyard below. Thirteen people were killed, and nearly 150 more were injured.

In addition to the deaths and damage, the bridge collapse cut off a major transportation artery for the Twin Cities. About 140,000 cars a day traversed the I-35W bridge that once stood more than 100 feet above the Mighty Mississippi.

But it took only 13 months for a brand new bridge to be built.

Here's what Baltimore can learn from the I-35W bridge collapse.

A deadly bridge collapse in Baltimore. A bridge in southern China sliced in half. Parts of a bridge cutting through the hull of a ship in Argentina.

These events happened in the first three months of this year – and all after collisions with large commercial ships. These incidents, and the toll – with at least five killed in China, and six presumed dead in Baltimore – have highlighted what experts say is the urgent need to improve or protect old bridges to accommodate larger modern vessels.

The Baltimore collapse on Tuesday focused national attention on the issue.

The incident in China took place in February when a cargo ship rammed into the Lixinsha Bridge in the Pearl River Delta, southern Guangzhou province – a major international shipping hub and the country’s industrial heartland.

These incidents may look similar but there could be varying factors at play, experts say.

Read more about what experts say we can do to improve shipping safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) team will likely board the MV Dali for the first time on Wednesday, Chair Jennifer Homendy told CNN.

Right now, investigators are identifying their first investigative targets, including who they will interview and which entities will be party to the investigation, Homendy said.

Investigators are also preparing to look at the structure of the bridge and any debris that fell to the Patapsco River and onto the ship itself, she added.

Of the 24 NTSB investigators on the scene, Homendy said a specialized team would determine who was controlling the vessel and who was on the ship’s bridge at the time of the crash.

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early on Tuesday after a container ship smashed into one of its columns, sending people and cars crashing into the frigid Patapsco River.

Eight construction workers were believed to be mending potholes on the bridge when it fell. Two of them were pulled from the river and survived but the remaining six are presumed dead.

Divers will return to the water on Wednesday to search for the missing people.

Here's what we know about the victims:

The Singapore-flagged cargo ship Dali, which crashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, was briefly held in Chile last June over a propulsion issue, the Chilean Navy told CNN.

An inspector found that the pressure gauges for the vessel’s heating system were “unreadable," and it was held at the Port of San Antonio on June 27, 2023, a navy spokesperson said Tuesday night.

It was held at Chile's largest port, which categorized the deficiency of the vessel as related to “propulsion and auxiliary machinery.”

It was not the first time the Dali had been held in a foreign port.

The container ship had been inspected 27 times since its building in 2015, and had two “deficiencies" since then, according to records from the Electronic Quality Shipping Information System (Equasis).

Dali was involved in an incident in 2016 in the Port of Antwerp, port officials confirmer to CNN.