The bodies of two people who went missing after a bridge collapsed in Baltimore when a freight ship crashed into it have been recovered, officials have said.
The bodies were recovered from the Patapsco River a day after the massive container ship lost power and its ability to maneuver before crashing into a support pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, knocking most of it into the water below.
Maryland police announced the discovery at a press conference, adding that sonar shows what they believe are more vehicles trapped within the concrete and twisted steel debris of the bridge.
Six of the eight-man construction crew are believed to have been killed, with four bodies yet to be found.
Warning that it was not safe for divers to try to penetrate the wreckage, police told a press conference that they were shifting to a salvage operation, removing the superstructure and then sending divers back in to recover the rest of the bodies.
"Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down," Colonel Roland Butler, the superintendent of Maryland's state police, told a press conference.
The container ship Dali, about 300 metres long, and piled high with cargo, was leaving the busy port at 1.30am (5.30am Irish time) yesterday en route to Asia when power failed and the vessel crashed straight into a support column.
Nearly the entire steel structure - crossed by tens of thousands of motorists each day - collapsed within seconds, cascading over the bow of the ship, blocking one of the busiest US trading ports.
The ship issued a mayday call in the moments before the collision, prompting police to rush to stop traffic on the bridge - likely saving lives.
But there was no chance to evacuate the eight workers filling potholes on the road directly above the oncoming ship.
Mr Butler named the two victims found as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, a 35-year-old who had lived in Baltimore but was originally from Mexico, and his 26-year-old colleague Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, who lived in the suburb of Dundalk but came from Guatemala.
They were found in 25 feet (7.6m) of water, he said.
Two others were pulled from the water alive in the moments after the collapse yesterday. One was uninjured, while the second has been released from hospital Wednesday, Mr Butler said.
'Hard-working' men
The vessel, which remains entangled in the debris, was "stable," Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier told reporters at the White House, adding that the crew remained on board and were "very much engaged" in the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board, a federal authority, said that the ship's data record, or black box, had been recovered so that investigators can understand what went wrong.
Mr Gautier insisted the ship did not present an environmental danger, despite the billion and a half gallons of oil and few dozen hazardous material cargo containers on board.
Two other containers - of the total 4,700 - were lost overboard, he said.
Officials said the missing workers were from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
"They are all hard-working, humble men," said Jesus Campos, a colleague of the eight workers, all employed by contractor Brawner Builders.
One of those now presumed dead was father-of-three Miguel Luna, according to the nonprofit Casa, which serves immigrant communities.
Luna, from El Salvador, had left for work at 6.30pm on Monday and never returned, Casa said.
His wife, Maria del Carmen Castellon, told Telemundo 44 that she was "devastated" by the wait for any information.
"My heart hurts with this situation," said Mr Campos.
Footage of the collision showed the Dali slamming into one of the 47-year-old bridge's supports.
"Just prior to the incident, the vessel had experienced momentary loss of propulsion. As a result, it was unable to maintain the desired heading," said the Maritime and Port Authority in Singapore, where the ship is flagged.
The authority said the ship's management company, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, reported the crew "dropped anchors" in a last-ditch, failed attempt to hold it back.
All 22 crew members on the vessel, owned by Grace Ocean, were accounted for, its management company, Synergy Marine, reported.
The ship had passed two overseas inspections in 2023, the authority said, adding that a fault monitor gauge was fixed in June.
Investigators from the authority and Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau headed to Baltimore to assist the US Coast Guard.
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Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the bridge had no known structural issues. There was no evidence of foul play, officials added.
The incident drew attention to the vessel's safety record. The same ship was involved in an incident in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.
An inspection in 2023 carried out in Chile found "propulsion and auxiliary machinery" deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.
But Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority said in a statement that the vessel passed two separate foreign-port inspections in June and September 2023.
It said a faulty fuel pressure gauge was rectified before the vessel departed the port following its June 2023 inspection.
Baltimore is the ninth-busiest major US port in terms of both foreign cargo handled and foreign cargo value, and is directly responsible for more than 15,000 jobs, supporting almost 140,000 more.
The effect on supply chains "clearly will not be trivial," US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, adding it was "too soon" to know when the port might reopen.
"Rebuilding will not be quick, or easy, or cheap," he cautioned.
Baltimore handles more automobile freight than any other US port - over 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to port data, as well as container and bulk cargo ranging from sugar to coal.
Still, economists and logistics experts said they doubted the closure would unleash a major US supply chain crisis or spike in the price of goods, due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs along the eastern seaboard.
US President Joe Biden called the collapse a "terrible accident" and pledged to get the port reopened and the bridge rebuilt.
The structure, named after Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star-Spangled Banner, was opened in 1977.
It carries about 31,000 vehicles across the harbour daily and serves as the main route for motorists between New York and Washington seeking to avoid central Baltimore.
Yesterday's disaster may be the worst US bridge collapse since 2007, when the I-35W in Minneapolis plunged into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.
