Officials retrieved the corpses of two construction workers killed when Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning after a 984-foot-long cargo ship slammed with a pillar.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore described Wednesday's collapse as "a global crisis." According to Colonel Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, the six victims feared dead are from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), is in charge of the inquiry into the deadly incident. During a news conference on Wednesday, Homendy stated that the Dali cargo ship smashed into the bridge with 21 crew members and two pilots aboard.
She also stated that a senior NTSB hazmat investigator spotted 56 hazardous material containers, some of which are in the water. The agency retrived six hours of cruise data from the ship, and Homendy estimated that the probe would take 12 to 24 months to complete. She emphasised that the NTSB will not analyse the material gathered or draw conclusions while on the scene of the collapse.
The bodies of two victims were found on Wednesday. Divers discovered them trapped in a red pickup truck underwater in about 25 feet of water near the bridge's centre span, Maryland State Police said.
The remaining four victims have not been found. Police named the workers found on Wednesday as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a Mexican native living in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, a Guatemalan native living in Dundalk, Maryland.
Miguel Luna, a construction worker, is among the four people still missing. Another missing person has been identified as Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, a father of two who fled from Honduras over 17 years ago, according to Gustavo Torres, CASA's executive director. The remaining two victims have not been identified.
A 35-year-old labourer from Camotán, Chiquimula, Guatemala, is missing, according to the country's foreign ministry. The remaining missing worker is from Mexico, according to the foreign ministry.
