The 21 crew members stranded on the ship that caused the Baltimore Bridge collapse are reportedly having a “difficult” 55 days stuck on the ship.
The crew, all from India except for one man from Sri Lanka, have been forced to remain on board since the March 26 disaster when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, killing six construction workers. ing.
Meanwhile, they scramble to find survivors of the accident, have their cell phones confiscated by FBI agents, and launch multiple controlled explosions to destroy a huge chunk of bridge stuck on top of the ship’s bow. I endured.
“It’s been a difficult situation for seafarers, mainly because we know that lives have been lost,” said Gwee Guo Duan, deputy general secretary of the Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union, one of the unions representing Singapore’s crew. ” he said. A ship with a flag, CNN coverage.
“It’s very difficult for them to be on a boat and have to see the accident scene every day.”
U.S. maritime regulations require ships to maintain a minimum number of personnel at all times, to maintain a minimum number of personnel at all times when onboard machinery is operating, and to ensure that the crew is available in the event of any problems. It stipulates that it must be.
The situation for the crew trapped on the ship was further complicated by the expiration of their US visas to disembark the ship.
The cargo ship was regained buoyancy and moved away from the wreckage on Monday morning, as part of a large team effort by the Joint Force, a coalition of various US authorities, but the crew remains on board for now. I am being asked to do something.
Officials from Synergy Marine, the company that owns the Dali, reassured the crew that they are well supplied and that the 21-member crew will be busy with maintenance and other tasks while on board. They also said seafarers are given access to mental health services.
Singapore’s unions also said there was “no basis” for crew members to be held personally responsible for the accident, despite evidence uncovered in previous investigations showing otherwise. “No,” he said, adding that he was plagued by fear.
Messick, a port chaplain and executive director of the International Seafarers’ Center in Baltimore, said Synergy Marine takes good care of its crew members, but he is concerned that the crew members’ cell phones, seized by the FBI in April, have not been returned.
“It baffles me why they didn’t at least copy the information. Just take it off and give them the phone back,” he said. wimal 2 news baltimore.
The crew members were then given temporary phones to use, but they no longer had access to their SIM cards or data on their original phones, according to multiple media reports.
The bridge collapsed on March 26 when a ship struck one of its supports, killing six construction workers who were filling holes in the bridge overnight. Those who died were unknown to the ship’s crew.
Now that Unified Command has brought the Dali into port, Messick hopes the men will be given the opportunity to be cleared to land. He said he plans to personally escort people off the ship, perhaps five at a time, with supervision, according to WMAR 2 News.
Messick said once they are able to disembark, they will know what they want to do and where they want to go.
“I know especially the captain wants to find a quiet place. He mentioned the monument. He mentioned the park,” he said.
“So we want to take him somewhere a little quieter.”
Synergy Marine spokesman Darrell Wilson said the company is providing the crew with food, toiletries and other necessities, but is relying on U.S. authorities for permission to remove the crew from the ship. he said.
“For the time being, the crew will remain on board and Synergy Marine will continue to look after them,” he said, adding that the company “immediately dispatched personnel” following the disaster.
“We hope that the authorities will allow the crew to disembark and allow them to return home as soon as possible.”
In the meantime, they are “making sure we have everything we need, helping bring additional supplies on board, and arranging for additional supplies,” Wilson said.
The crew members are not free to return home until they are cleared by investigating authorities.
Wilson acknowledged that at this point, “we don’t know how long the investigation will take.”
The bridge crash occurred after the cargo ship suffered a power outage about 10 hours before leaving the Port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka, federal investigators said last week.
The first power outage occurred after a crew member accidentally closed an exhaust damper during maintenance, causing one of the ship’s diesel engines to shut down, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigators.
Another power outage occurred as the ship left the Port of Baltimore, causing it to lose steering and propulsion, colliding with one of the bridge supports and collapsing.
The FBI has launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the incident.
