Divers have recovered the bodies of two of the six people missing after a cargo ship crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, plunging most of the bridge into the water.
The bodies were pulled from the Patapsco River a day after the Singapore-flagged Dali lost power and its ability to maneuver before plowing into a support pylon of the bridge.
A Maryland State Police official said the truck containing the bodies of the two men was found in about 25 feet of water near the mid-section of the fallen bridge.
Colonel Ronald Butler named the two victims found as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentez of Baltimore, and 26-year-old Darlene Rania El Castillo Cabrera of Dundalk.
Their families have been informed.
He also said that further efforts to recover remains were being suspended because of the increasingly treacherous conditions.
Four more workers who were part of a crew filling potholes on the bridge's road surface at the time remained missing and were declared on Tuesday night to be presumed dead, 18 hours after the crash.
The crash happened in the middle of the night on Tuesday, long before the busy morning commute on the bridge that stretches 1.6 miles and was used by 12 million vehicles last year.
Earlier in the day, federal investigators examined the cargo ship while emergency teams searched for bodies and details emerged of the intense efforts to save lives in the minutes before the steel span collapsed.
“Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge. There's a ship approaching that just lost their steering," someone said on police radio minutes before the 1.30 a.m. crash on Tuesday.
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While voices were heard discussing next steps, including alerting any work crews to leave the bridge, one broke through to say: "The whole bridge just fell down!"
The recording offered a glimpse of how authorities scrambled before the crash sent six bridge repair workers on the night shift to their deaths in the frigid black waters.
The Singapore-flagged Dali, a container ship the length of three football fields, had reported a loss of power before impact and dropped anchor to slow the vessel, giving authorities barely enough time to halt traffic on the bridge and likely prevent greater loss of life.
Investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board recovered the data recorder after boarding the ship late on Tuesday, officials said.
Rescuers pulled two workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one was hospitalised.
