Baltimore bridge crash: Indian crew members head home

EIGHT Indian crew members of the cargo ship ‘Dali’ that crashed into a bridge in Baltimore in March left for India on Friday (21) after nearly three months on the mammoth vessel.

According to Baltimore Maritime Exchange, four of the 21 crew members are still on board the 984-foot cargo ship MV Dali, which is tentatively scheduled to leave Friday evening for Norfolk, Virginia.

The rest of the crew has been moved to a service apartment in Baltimore and will remain there pending an investigation.

Notably, 20 of the crew members were Indian nationals. They were on board the MV Dali Cargo, which struck the pillars of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge resulting in its collapse and the death of six construction workers in the tragic incident.

Dali will undergo repair at Norfolk.

The departure of eight Indian crew members including a cook, a fitter and seamen follows a deal approved by the judge. None of these are officers. The rest 13 would remain in the US, mainly because of the pending investigations.

“They’re anxious, under considerable stress considering they don’t know the future. They don’t know when they’ll see their family again or how they’ll be treated here,” Rev. Joshua Messick, director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center and chaplain for the Port of Baltimore told CNN.

None of the crew members have been charged in connection with the disaster. FBI and other federal agencies are conducting the investigations.

The 2.6km-long, four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore, came crashing down after Dali collided against it on March 26.

The vessel is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd and was outbound from Baltimore to Colombo and has a capacity of 10,000 TEU, with onboard units totalling 4,679 TEU. The vessel’s deadweight is 116,851 DWT.

(PTI)