Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Indian Crew Onboard Cargo Ship Dali 'Healthy'

The Indian crew onboard a crippled container vessel that collided against a key bridge in Baltimore last week is “healthy”, according to a nonprofit organisation that has been in touch with the personnel.

The 2.6km-long, four-lane bridge over the Patapsco River in Baltimore, came crashing down after Dali, a 984-foot cargo ship bound for Sri Lanka, collided against it in the early hours of March 26. The 21 crew members of Dali, of which 20 are Indians, are still onboard the crippled cargo ship nearly a week after the collision.

“All I know right now is that they are healthy and we are doing the best we can to support their needs emotionally and otherwise,” Baltimore International Seafarers’ Centre Executive Director The Rev. Joshua Messick told news agency PTI. Messick said he has “been in touch with the crew via WhatsApp” and described the crew’s responses to him as well as to those who are in touch with it as being “succinct”. “I imagine they are being very careful about what they say and to whom,” he said.