Maryland State Police Superintendent Roland Butler identified the victims as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, originally from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, of Dundalk, originally from Guatemala. The bodies of four other members of the crew, who were working on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when a cargo ship plowed into it about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, are still missing.
Immigrant assistance and advocacy group CASA identified two of those still missing as Maynor Suazo Sandoval, a husband and father of two who was originally from Honduras and lived in Owings Mills, and Miguel Luna, a husband and father of three originally from El Salvador.
The bow of the massive Sri Lanka-bound ship, the Dali, was at the bottom of the Patapsco on Wednesday afternoon, weighed down by a piece of the bridge that once carried thousands of commuters across the harbor each day, until its demise early Tuesday. The 984-foot ship has over 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil and lube oil on board, as well as about 4,700 cargo containers, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the White House.
The ship is stable, and none of the roughly 50 cargo boxes containing hazardous materials that it’s carrying has gone overboard, Gautier said, noting there was no threat to public safety. The Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers are trying to assess how to clear the channel to minimize the economic impact of the ongoing halt to operations at the Port of Baltimore, following President Joe Biden’s directive to “get the port up and running as soon as possible,” Gautier said.
“Given the magnitude and importance of this response, it’s going to be very, very aggressive,” he said.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard crews have boarded the ship, while divers plunge into the water and units conduct underwater surveys using remote operating vehicles, Gautier said.
The evening before, authorities called off a search-and-rescue operation for the six men presumed to be dead after they fell with the bridge into the water. Officials said Tuesday evening that they were transitioning to a “recovery operation” due to the frigid waters and because they did not believe the construction crew members would be found alive. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore vowed that officials would help the men’s families find closure by putting resources toward finding the victims’ bodies.
Two crew members survived the collapse and were rescued Tuesday morning, one of whom was treated and released from the hospital, according to officials. The six victims unaccounted for are construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge when the container ship struck a support column, causing the expanse to collapse.
Baltimore Fire Capt. Scott Parrott, who is on the dive team, said a highway inspector was on the bridge near the time of impact and was able to run back to the end of the bridge to safety. Parrott said the inspector had valuable knowledge of the construction site and was able to help the dive team map out the debris field, giving them an idea of where to look.
“Even though he’d been through a very traumatic experience, he was able to be an essential part of our initial response and our initial dive profile,” Parrott said. “I commend him because he was very shaken up. He almost died. That man is a very special man. He was able to fight the fear and really help us out.”
At a news conference, Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said the inspector was a contractor by the Maryland Transportation Authority from Eborn Enterprises Inc. in Windsor Mill.
Wiedefeld said construction workers were alerted they needed to move off the bridge as law enforcement stopped traffic but did not specify how workers would have been notified.
In addition to those searching for the workers, crews from the transportation safety board and the FBI were also in the water to collect evidence. The board’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, said Wednesday morning that investigators had boarded the Dali overnight and would board again Wednesday to get electronic logs and components — “perishable evidence” that will go away as the collapse is cleaned up.
“The focus is what do we need for our investigation — whether it’s from the vessel or from the highway, from the bridge structure — identifying those, securing those before we do any sort of analysis,” she said. A spokesperson for the board said later Wednesday that investigators had recovered data from the black box, known as a Voyage Data Recorder.
Investigators were also developing a list of witnesses they sought to interview, including the cargo ship’s 22-member crew, which is still on board, according to a spokesperson for Synergy Marine Group, the Dali’s management company.
In addition to the crew members, a local pilot and an apprentice were on board, according to Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots Association. Local pilots, mariners who are highly trained in navigating local waters, assist ship crews in getting through testy harbors. The job, which Diamond described as the “pinnacle of a mariner career,” requires extensive, arduous training.
A pilot was at the helm of the Dali when it appeared to lose power early Tuesday morning, causing the ship’s steering and propulsion systems to fail, Diamond said. The pilot did “everything he could” by contacting authorities and steering the ship’s rudder to the left once its backup generators kicked in, though the ship’s engines were still inoperable, he said. The ship also dropped anchor. Those maneuvers gave authorities the extra time to shut down bridge traffic, he said.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday morning, Moore said that he “cannot stress enough the heroism” of the rescue and recovery teams who have braved the Patapsco’s frigid waters since Tuesday. He said the divers are in dark waters where they can only see “a foot in front of them,” navigating “mangled metal” in a place where people are believed to have died.
Moore said Tuesday that he had met with the families of the missing workers and promised to use “every possible asset at our disposal to make sure they find a sense of closure.”
One employee of the highway construction company, who was not involved in the incident, Jesus Campos, said his missing co-workers were of Hispanic descent and were replacing concrete on the bridge at the time of the collision. The workers are all employees of the Hunt Valley firm Brawner Builders, according to Jeffrey Pritzker, its executive vice president.
The General Consulate of Guatemala in Maryland said in a Facebook post Tuesday that two of the missing workers were from that country.
One of the workers was identified by family members as Miguel Luna, a Salvadoran father of three who has lived in Maryland for 19 years. He and his five missing co-workers were the subject of Masses and vigils across the city Tuesday.
We are CASA, an immigration advocacy organization, identified a second victim Wednesday as Maynor Suazo Sandoval. He migrated from Honduras over 17 years ago and was an active member of CASA in Owings Mills.
A former Brawner Builders employee, Bobby Knutson Jr., identified a third victim as Alex Hernandez, a Mexican native and foreman of the construction crew.
At a vigil Tuesday evening at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Baltimore City and Baltimore County officials appeared alongside faith leaders, thanking first responders for their efforts and promising to support the impacted families.
“We can only imagine what is going through [the families’] minds and through their hearts and through their bodies,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. “We have to lift them up, not just today, not just tomorrow but for the foreseeable future.”
Catholic Archbishop William Lori, alongside other bishops, held a Mass in honor of the men on Tuesday. Father Ako Walker, a priest at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Highlandtown, offered prayers in Spanish for the families at a Dundalk vigil.
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(Baltimore Sun reporters Cassidy Jensen, Darcy Costello, Hayes Gardner and Christine Condon contributed to this article.)
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