Baltimore Police Commissioner: ‘Absolutely No Indication’ Bridge Tragedy Was Terrorism

In an aerial view, cargo ship Dali is seen after running into and collapsing the Francis S
asos Katopodis/Getty
Hannah Knudsen

There is “absolutely no indication” that the “mass casualty event” of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was deliberate, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said following the tragedy.

A cargo ship crashed into one of the supports of the bridge early Tuesday morning, and rescue operations have been underway. The Baltimore Fire Department deemed it a “mass casualty incident” and said it “responded with numerous water rescue resources just before 2 a.m. after reports of a vessel striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge and causing a collapse.”

Several vehicles were seen plunging into the Patapsco River, and according to the fire chief, two individuals have been rescued.

As speculation arose, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley ruled out terrorism.

“There is absolutely no indication that there’s any terrorism, that this was done on purpose,” he stated Tuesday.

As Breitbart News reported, it seems the ship experienced serious issues prior to the crash:

As reported at length earlier, it was clear there were serious problems aboard the MV Dali in the minutes before it collided with the Beltway Bridge, with onboard power going out four minutes before impact, plunging the ship into darkness. Now the BBC notes “an unclassified memo” from the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) states it has confirmed the ship “lost propulsion” before hitting the bridge.

So evidently the ship was, as nautical parlance has it, ‘not under command’, meaning “at the mercy of winds and seas” — and in this case, inertia. What we do not know is whether this state of having “lost propulsion” means the engine ceased to function, or if the coupling taking the energy from the engine to the propeller was damaged. In either case the ship was disabled at a critical moment and in a critical place and collided with enormous force.

According to the Baltimore County Fire Department, “numerous water rescue and dive teams from across Baltimore County are deployed to the scene of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse as we continue to provide assistance.”

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