During the initial stages of a federal probe into the deadly collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, investigators are focusing on the electrical power system of the massive container ship that veered off course.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said her agency is gathering data with assistance from Hyundai, the manufacturer of equipment in the ship’s engine room. Testifying before a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday morning, she said investigators have also requested assistance to examine its circuit breakers.
“That is where our focus is right now in this investigation,” she said. “Of course, that’s preliminary. It could take different roads, different paths as we continue this investigation.
Homendy said they’ve zeroed in on the electrical system. The ship experienced power issues moments before the crash, as evidenced in videos showing its lights going out and coming back on.
Homendy said information gleaned from the vessel’s voyage data recorder is relatively basic, “so that information in the engine room will help us tremendously.”
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Investigators are also examining the bridge design and how it could be built with better pier protection “under today’s standards,” Homendy said.
The container ship Dali was leaving Baltimore, laden with cargo and headed for Sri Lanka, when it struck one of the bridge’s supporting columns last month, causing the span to collapse into the Patapsco River and sending six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths.
Divers have recovered three bodies from the underwater wreckage, while the remaining three victims are still unaccounted for.
Crews have been working to extract sections of the fallen bridge, including those entangled in a muddy mess at the bottom of the Patapsco River.
“This work is remarkably complex,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Officials said they still expect to open a third temporary shipping channel by late April, which will allow significantly more commercial traffic to pass through the port of Baltimore. The east coast shipping hub has been closed to most maritime traffic since the bridge collapse, which blocked access to its main channel.
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