{"id":28605,"date":"2024-06-19T03:43:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T08:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=28605"},"modified":"2024-06-19T03:43:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T08:43:55","slug":"attorneys-for-baltimore-seek-to-keep-crew-members-from-bridge-collapse-ship-from-returning-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=28605","title":{"rendered":"Attorneys for Baltimore seek to keep crew members from bridge collapse ship from returning home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Baltimore \u2014 Attorneys are asking a federal judge to prevent crew members on the\u2002cargo ship Dali\u2002<\/a>from returning to their home countries amid ongoing investigations into the circumstances leading up to the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight of the Dali\u2019s crew members<\/a> were scheduled to debark the ship and return home as early as Thursday, according to emails included in court filings Tuesday. The roughly two dozen total seafarers hail from India and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would mark the first time any of them can leave the ship since it lost power and crashed into one of the bridge\u2019s supporting columns shortly after leaving Baltimore on March 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the court filings, attorneys representing the City of Baltimore<\/a> said the men should remain in the U.S. so they can be deposed in ongoing civil litigation over who should be held responsible for covering costs and damages resulting from the bridge collapse, which killed six construction workers<\/a> and temporarily halted most maritime traffic through Baltimore\u2019s busy port<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe crew consists entirely of foreign nationals who, of course, have critical knowledge and information about the events giving rise to this litigation,\u201d attorneys wrote. \u201cIf they are permitted to leave the United States, Claimants may never have the opportunity to question or depose them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petition requested an emergency hearing on the matter. No ruling has been issued in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for the ship\u2019s owner, said Tuesday evening that some crew members are scheduled to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA portion of the crew are going home and a portion are remaining here to assist with the investigation,\u201d he said in a text message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson said he was unable to provide additional details about how many crew members were leaving and when. He also said he wasn\u2019t sure when the ship itself would leave Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia, where it will receive more extensive repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hulking container ship remained pinned amid the wreckage of the fallen bridge for almost two months while workers removed thousands and thousands of tons of mangled steel and concrete from the bottom of the Patapsco River at the entrance to Baltimore\u2019s harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship\u2019s crew remained onboard even when explosives were detonated<\/a> to break apart fallen bridge trusses and free the vessel from a massive steel span that landed across its bow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing civil litigation began with a petition from the ship\u2019s owner and manager<\/a>, two Singapore-based companies, seeking to limit their legal liability for the deadly disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation<\/a> found the ship experienced two power outages in the hours before it left the Port of Baltimore. In the moments before the bridge collapse, it lost power again and veered off course. The agency\u2019s investigation is still ongoing to determine what exactly caused the electrical issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI also launched a criminal investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the emails included in Tuesday\u2019s court filings, the eight crew members scheduled to return home have already been interviewed by Department of Justice investigators and that the department doesn\u2019t object to their departure. The crew members will fly out of Baltimore \u201clikely on or about June 20th,\u201d an attorney for the ship\u2019s owner and manager wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baltimore \u2014 Attorneys are asking a federal judge to prevent crew members on the\u2002cargo ship Dali\u2002from returning to their home countries amid ongoing investigations into the circumstances leading up to the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Eight of the Dali\u2019s crew members were scheduled to debark the ship and return home as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1427,7716,29124,22154,3580,1646],"class_list":["post-28605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-baltimore","tag-blocking","tag-bridge-collapse","tag-crew","tag-lawyer","tag-return"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28607,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28605\/revisions\/28607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}