New Delhi: Nearly three months after the ‘MV Dali’ ship crashed into the Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in the United States, eight Indian crew members who were stuck on the cargo vessel left for Indian on Friday.
According to sources, four of the 21 crew members are still stuck on the 984-foot mammoth vessel Dali. The ship was tentatively scheduled to leave on Friday evening for Norfolk in Virginia.
The rest of the nine crew members have been shifted to a service apartment in Baltimore and will remain there pending an investigation. The eight crew members who are en route India include a cook, a fitter and seamen.
20 Out of 21 Crew Members Were Indians
It is to be noted that 20 of the crew members onboard the ship on the day of the bridge collapse were Indian nationals. The vessel had struck the pillars of Baltimore Bridge causing to bridge to collapse. The incident also proved fatal for six construction workers. The Singapore-flagged container ship ‘MV Dali’ is expected to undergo repair at Norfolk.
Their departure comes following an approval by a court. None of these are officers. The rest of the 13 Indians will remain in the US, mainly because of the pending investigations.
So far, none of the crew members have been charged in connection with the disaster. Meanwhile, the FBI and other federal agencies are probing the case.
All About Baltimore Bridge Collapse
The 2.6km-long, four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore, collapsed after being hit by Dali in the early hours of March 26.
The vessel was enroute Colombo from Baltimore when the tragedy struck. Owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd, Dali has a capacity of 10,000 TEU, with onboard units totalling 4,679 TEU. The vessel’s deadweight is 116,851 DWT.
On the morning of March 26, 2024, the United States witnessed one of the deadliest bridge collapses. At around 1:28 am on, the main spans of the Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Patapsco River between Baltimore and Dundalk in Maryland came down after the container ship MS ‘Dali’ struck one of its pillars.
As per media reports, the vessel had suffered two complete blackouts ahead of the collapse of the bridge, a major transit route into the busy port of Baltimore. Operations to retrieve bodies of those who had gone missing went on for days. The body of the sixth and final victim who died after a bridge collapse was recovered in May, almost over 40 days after the incident.
Parts of Collapsed Bridge Blown Up to Free Ship
Earlier on May 13, the officials leading the operation to normalize things achieved a major feat by breaking apart the mangled remains of the bridge, paving way for the Dali vessel to move. The demolition was carried out by the teams of US Army Corps of Engineers and US Coast Guard.
The significant milestone was achieved with controlled explosives being successfully detonated in order to demolish the steel-section on the bridge entangling the Dali ship which had been stuck there since the disaster.
The US Army Corps of Engineers had said that this demolition process completely freed the ship from the bridge wreckage in the water. The container ship Dali had been trapped under the collapsed truss of the bridge. The truss had fallen across the bow of the ship. The explosions blew off the massive structure jutting from the water, sending pieces splashing down near the ship resting against the muddy Patapsco River bed.
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