Search for survivors in Baltimore bridge collapse called off as effort enters recovery phase
Officials said they do not expect to find any other survivors from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday.
"Based on the length of time that we've gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature, that at this point, we do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals still alive," U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon N. Gilreath said at a news conference Tuesday evening.
Search and rescue operations for the six missing construction workers will transition to recovery operations. Diving efforts paused at 7:30 p.m. ET and will resume Wednesday morning, according to Gilreath.
"Coast Guard is not going away. None of our partners are going away. But we're just going to transition to a different phase," he added.
Officials on boats will continue to search throughout the night.
Conditions too dangerous for divers now
Water temperature, lack of visibility and fallen bridge structures have made diving and recovery efforts far too dangerous to continue until early Wednesday morning, Gilreath said.
"We do not want to injure any of these first responders in this recovery effort. We absolutely want to be as safe as possible for everyone involved in this," Gilreath added.
Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., secretary of Maryland State Police said officials will also use sonar technology to help locate the crew.
"All it takes is one object to strike an individual. And all of a sudden, we have a first responder trying to recover another first responder," Butler said. "We're hoping to put divers in the water to begin a more detailed search to do our very best to recover those six missing people."
Missing crew believed to be from other countries
Two of the missing crew members on the bridge were Guatemalan nationals ages 26 and 35, the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry said in the statement. Their families have been notified.
The other missing workers are from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.
"We will continue requesting information from the authorities and information about search and rescue efforts to find the missing Guatemalans," the statement said.
The collapse occurred seconds after a Singapore-flagged vessel named Dali struck the bridge at around 1:30 a.m. as it was leaving the Port of Baltimore. Officials reported a power issue and sent out a "mayday" signal before the collision.
Several vehicles were on the bridge during the immediate collapse falling into the Patapsco River, where the temperature was measured Tuesday at 48 degrees.
Multiple contractors were on the bridge repairing potholes, according to Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld. He said two people have been rescued, with one of them being unharmed and the other in "very serious condition."
Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas