FBI launches felony probe into Baltimore bridge collapse: Investigators to look into whether or not 22-man crew of Dali knew the ship had issues when it left port and smashed into Francis Scott Key bridge, killing six development employees

The FBI has launched a felony probe into the Baltimore bridge collapse that left six development employees useless earlier this month. 

The probe might be overseen by the US district lawyer’s workplace in Maryland and give attention to whether or not the 22-crew of the Dali left the port realizing the vessel had severe systemic points, the Washington Publish reported on Monday.

Throughout the preliminary phases of separate federal probe into the lethal collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, investigators are specializing in {the electrical} energy system of the huge container ship that veered astray.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, mentioned her company is gathering knowledge with help from Hyundai, the producer of apparatus within the ship’s engine room. Testifying earlier than a U.S. Senate committee, she mentioned investigators have additionally requested help to look at its circuit breakers.

‘That’s the place our focus is correct now on this investigation,’ she mentioned. ‘In fact, that’s preliminary. It might take completely different roads, completely different paths as we proceed this investigation.’

Homendy mentioned they’ve zeroed in on {the electrical} system. The ship skilled energy points moments earlier than the crash, as evidenced in movies displaying its lights going out and coming again on.

Investigators are additionally analyzing the bridge design and the way it may very well be constructed with higher pier safety “underneath as we speak’s requirements,” Homendy mentioned.

The container ship Dali was leaving Baltimore, laden with cargo and headed for Sri Lanka, when it struck one of many bridge’s supporting columns final month, inflicting the span to break down into the Patapsco River and sending six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths.

Divers have recovered three our bodies from the underwater wreckage, whereas the remaining three victims are nonetheless unaccounted for.

Crews have been working to extract sections of the fallen bridge, together with these entangled in a muddy mess on the backside of the Patapsco River.

“This work is remarkably complicated,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore mentioned throughout a information convention Wednesday afternoon.