The FBI has opened a criminal investigation on the container ship that took down Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge last month, looking to determine if the ship’s crew left the port knowing the vessel was troubled.
Officials are reviewing the events that led up to the massive, 980-foot-long Dali container ship colliding with one of the Key Bridge’s support pillars, two US officials with knowledge of the matter told the Washington Post.
“The FBI is present aboard the cargo ship Dali conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” the agency said in a statement Monday morning.
The FBI did not comment further on their investigation.
The early-morning collision collapsed the Key Bridge, a vital route of local traffic where eight people were working on repairing potholes overnight.
The construction crew fell into the water; six members died, while two survived, officials said.
The massive container ship, capable of carrying nearly 130,000 tons of cargo, took down the 47-year-old bridge just before 1:30 a.m. March 26 after attempting to warn officials that it had reportedly lost propulsion and was about to crash into the bridge.
Two “deficiencies” were flagged across 27 inspections of the ship since it was built in 2015, most recently in June 2023.
The container ship was last inspected on Sept. 9, 2023, by the US Coast Guard in New York. No deficiencies were reported at the time
The FBI’s investigation is separate from the probe underway by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is looking to determine the cause of the crash and assess other safety-related measures.
President Biden and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have both said they intend to hold any parties that are deemed liable accountable for the incident.
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