Experts reveal cause of Baltimore Key Bridge collapse – latest updates

President Biden has approved $60m in initial aid to rebuild the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore after it collapsed on Tuesday.

The president said the federal government will over the “lion’s share” of the cost of rebuilding the bridge, though state Governor Wes Moore warned of a “very long road” to recovery.

State officials have warned that they do not know when the bridge or port will be reopened, sparking fears about the disruption to trade likely to result from the tragedy.

In a press conference on Thursday, Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced the approval of the funds, telling reporters: “This morning, we submitted an initial $60 million request to the Biden Harris administration for initial mobilisation, operations and debris recovery efforts.

“I can report that as of this afternoon, the Biden Harris Administration has approved that request.”

A statement from the US Department of Transportation said the $60m “quick release” funds would “serve as a down payment toward initial costs, and additional Emergency Relief program funding will be made available as work continues.”

Insurance service company AM Best has estimated that the exact total cost of the bridge collapse and the associated claims would run “into the billions”.

The NTSB has released a new video showing investigators surveying the damage to the Dali container ship after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

The remains of the bridge are seen floating in the river below in the video, while officials survey the damage to the interior of the ship.

All 22 crew members survived the crash, with only one person reporting minor injuries.

Four bodies are still missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on Tuesday morning.

Divers found the two victims trapped in a red pickup truck a little before 10 am on Wednesday in about 25 feet of water around the bridge’s middle span.

They were identified as construction workers Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Maryland.

Meanwhile, four other missing construction workers remain unaccounted for.

On Tuesday, officials said two people had been rescued alive from the water. One was uninjured while the other was in a serious condition.

A construction worker who was part of the team on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed early on Tuesday morning in Baltimore, miraculously survived the incident despite not knowing how to swim.

Julio Cervantes’ and seven other workers from Mexico and Central America were taking a break inside their cars just moments before the bridge collapsed around 1:30am.

Mr Cervantes and another man were rescued the same day. The remains of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, were recovered by searchers.

He was taken to the hospital with a chest wound and was released the same day

“My husband doesn’t know how to swim. It is a miracle he survived,” the wife of Cervantes, who did not wish to reveal her name, told NBC.

Two two agencies will work of making the port fully operational again, officials said during a White House press briefing that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Vice Admiral Peter Gautier attended.

Many questions remain about the collision, including why the ship hit with the bridge in the first place. But many of them are structural: how was the ship able to reach the bridge, why was it not protected against such collisions, and why the bridge collapsed so quickly once the collision had happened.

Experts say it may be too early to say exactly what happened during the collision and the collapse that resulted. But they caution that bridges of this kind are specifically built with protections against such crashes – and that it may have required a huge impact to make the bridge fall in this way.

The New York Post offers the incredible story of Moises Diaz, 45, a colleague of some of the deceased from Brawner Builders who only escaped Tuesday’s tragedy as a result of a last-minute shift change.

Diaz told the Post he is grieving for the men he viewed as “family” and counting his blessings.

“If I didn’t ask to switch, I would have been in the water right now,” he said.

“It’s tragic. I’m really appreciative that I wasn’t on the bridge. I give thanks to God.”

He described his fallen colleagues as “good workers, hard-working… They were good family members, husbands and dads” and said: “When I found out about it, I got a notification. I remembered, ‘Oh my co-workers are on that bridge working. What happened to them?’”