FBI agents board Singapore-flagged ship managed by company of vessel in Baltimore bridge collapse
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The Dali container ship, which is managed by Singapore-based Synergy Marine Group, and the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 28, 2024.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
BALTIMORE – Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents on Sept 21 boarded a container ship that is managed by the same parent company as the cargo vessel that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March, which had toppled the structure and killed six workers.
The agents were conducting “court-authorised law enforcement activity” on the Maersk Saltoro ship alongside officials from the US Coast Guard’s Investigative Service and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, according to statements from the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland.
Both the Maersk Saltoro, currently also in Baltimore, and the Dali, the container ship that crashed in March, are managed by Synergy Marine Group, which is based in Singapore.
The activity, which was first reported by The Washington Post, comes just three days after the US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the owner and operator of the Dali for being “grossly negligent” and “reckless” in the lead-up to the collision.
The government is seeking more than US$100 million (S$129 million) in damages to cover the costs of the sprawling emergency response to the disaster and the federal aid to port employees who were put out of work. The Dali is owned by Grace Ocean, also based in Singapore.
Officials did not provide more details on the Sept 21 boarding and did not say whether it was connected to the Justice Department’s lawsuit or a separate federal criminal investigation into the crash that remains active.
The Maersk Saltoro was sailing under a Singapore flag and was expected to depart for Sri Lanka, according to VesselFinder, a ship-tracking website. Grace Ocean did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sept 21.
The Justice Department lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on Sept 18 in Maryland, described a series of failures on board that resulted in the Dali losing power and slamming into the Key Bridge on March 26. The disaster could have been prevented at multiple points, the suit asserts, pointing to poor maintenance and “jury-rigged” fixes to serious problems aboard the ship.
The early-morning collapse of the bridge killed the six men who were repairing pavement on it and paralysed the Port of Baltimore for weeks. On Sept 17, the families of three of the men who were killed announced that they were also suing the owner of the Dali. NYTIMES
