By George Hetling
About two months ago, the MV Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge as it left the port of Baltimore. Two power outages happening shortly after leaving port were identified as the causes of the accident. 21 Indian and Sri Lankan crew members remain stranded aboard the ship even after the ship has returned to port. There is no word from either the US government or Synergy Marine (the ship’s Singapore-based management company) on when they will be able to set foot on land.
The crew’s visas, which were only valid for 30 days, have long since expired during the salvage operations to clear the ship and restore access to the port. According to monopoly media BBC, they will likely be required to have an escort while on shore. Investigations from both the FBI and the National Transit Safety Board are ongoing.
From the start, the crew wondered when they would be able to leave the ship or go home. The anxiety and low morale has only continued. When Rev. Mark Nestlehutt visited the Dali crew on April 1, he immediately noticed their “sense of great loss and sadness” about the construction workers killed when the ship collided with the bridge, and the seamen “wanted to let their own family members know that they were safe,” he said.
Two weeks later on April 15, the FBI confiscated the crew members’ phones as part of the ongoing investigations into the causes of the accident. According to monopoly media The Washington Post, “[The FBI] will look at least in part at whether the crew left the port knowing the vessel had serious systems problems.” This cut the workers off from their finances and almost all access to the outside world. This also sparked concerns from the seamen that they may be personally liable for the crash.
The crew has since been given new cell phones, according to Gwee Guo Duan of the Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union, one of two unions representing the 21 seamen. But, the FBI has only returned some workers’ SIM cards.
In the two months that the crew has been required to remain on board the vessel, they have spent their days continuing to carry out both routine ship maintenance and assisting salvage workers with cleaning up the wreckage. According to Duan, “One of [the workers] actually ran to the front of the vessel, which is the bow, to actually try to look for survivors from the accident.”
Last month, workers were required to stay inside the ship to keep it “staffed and operational” while US authorities used explosives to demolish sections of the bridge that lay atop it.
