“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search, the extensive search efforts that we’ve put into it, the water temperature — that at this point we do not believe we are going to find any of these individuals still alive,” Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a press conference.
Gilreath told reporters that they were suspending active search-and-rescue efforts on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., local time. The authorities, Gilreath said, would instead “transition to a different phase” to recover the workers’ bodies.
The secretary of the Maryland State Police, Colonel Roland L. Butler Jr. said at the same press conference that divers would resume the search on Wednesday at 6 a.m., local time.
Butler told reporters that this was necessary as “the changing conditions out there have made it dangerous for the first responders, the divers in the water.”
“The water’s deep. Visibility’s low. It’s cold as I don’t know what,” the communications director for the Baltimore Fire Department, Kevin Cartwright told The New York Times.
The surface ships, Butler said, would still continue their search overnight.
“At this point, we do not know where they are, but we intend to give it our best effort to help these families find closure,” Butler said of the missing construction workers.
Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge had collapsed on Tuesday morning after it was struck by a Singapore-flagged cargo ship, the Dali. The vessel was headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka when the accident took place.
The collision occurred at around 1:28 a.m. on Tuesday, per a livestream of the incident viewed by BI. A video clip posted on X showed the bridge’s structure crumbling after the Dali hit one of its support beams.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge is a key node within Baltimore’s transportation network. Over 11 million vehicles use the bridge on a yearly basis, and its closure could cost $15 million a day in lost economic activity.
Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said on Tuesday that eight people were working on the bridge when it collapsed.
According to the Baltimore Fire Department, two of them have already been rescued. Fire department chief James Wallace told reporters that one person was transported to a local trauma center “in very serious condition,” while the other had refused aid.
