Body of fourth worker killed in US bridge collapse recovered

The steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sits on top of the container ship Dali after the bridge collapsed, Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. – The bridge collapsed early March 26 after being struck by the Singapore-flagged Dali, sending multiple vehicles and people plunging into the frigid harbor below. There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the disaster, but Baltimore’s Police Commissioner Richard Worley said there was “no indication” of terrorism. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

The body of a fourth construction worker who died after a bridge collapsed when it was struck by a container ship in the US city of Baltimore last month has been recovered, officials said Monday.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge, a major transit route into the busy city and port of Baltimore, collapsed on March 26 when the Dali container ship lost power and collided into a support column, killing six roadway construction workers.

The Key Bridge response team’s Unified Command said it had recovered the body of the “fourth missing construction worker” on Sunday at the site of the bridge collapse.

“Unified Command salvage teams located what they believed to be one of the missing construction vehicles and promptly notified” Maryland state police, according to a statement.

Authorities “responded and located a deceased victim trapped inside the vehicle,” it added, without identifying the deceased.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said Monday that the body of Mexican national Carlos Daniel Hernandez, who had worked on the bridge, was recovered.

“Carlos Daniel represents our Mexican workers in the United States,” she wrote on social media site X.

Another Mexican national identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes was also killed.

His remains were located soon after the collapse, as were those of 26-year-old Guatemalan Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera.

Dive teams recovered the body of another missing worker, 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, on April 5, Unified Command said this month.

The 1,000-foot (300-meter) Dali ship had managed to issue a Mayday call in the moments before the collision which gave police time to stop traffic on the bridge, likely saving lives.

But an eight-man construction crew repairing potholes on the bridge could not be reached in time, and plummeted with the tons of concrete and twisted steel into the Patapsco River.

Two workers were rescued alive, one briefly hospitalized and the other uninjured.

The FBI has launched a criminal probe targeting the container ship, US media reported on Monday.