Baltimore bridge collapse timeline: What happened before, during and after

hello thank you for joining us we begin

with an image from the Patapsco River

near Baltimore where nothing looks right

the bridge that protects us from the

water is in the water a cargo vessel

stuck speared on the pylon it crashed

into at 1:30 in the morning early

Tuesday the bridge once spanned a vital

shipping route to the Port of Baltimore

authorities were searching for six

people who had been working on the

bridge now it's a recovery Mission based

on the length of time that we've gone in

the search the extensive search efforts

that we've put into it the water

temperature that at this point we do not

believe that we're going to find any of

these individuals still alive we are

going to suspend the active search and

rescue efforts two other people were

rescued from the water CBS Evening News

anchor Nora odonnell has more from

Baltimore dramatic video captured the

horrifying moment the massive cargo ship

nearly 1,000 ft long crashed into a

support column on the Francis Scott Key

bridge in Baltimore if the whole Bridge

just fell down start start whoever

everybody the whole Bridge just

collapsed within seconds a large portion

of the bridge collapses plunging into

the Patapsco River we are still

investigating what happened but we are

quickly Gathering details the

preliminary investigation points to an

accident we haven't seen any credible

evidence evidence of a terrorist attack

a closer look at the video shows the

ship heading south at about 1:24 a.m.

when the lights go dark but quickly on

again a minute later plumes of black

smoke can be seen billowing from the

ship's chimney once again it appears the

ship loses its lights a minute after

they come back on the vessel slams into

the bridge never would you think that

you would see physically see the Key

Bridge tumble down like that it looked

like something out of a an action move

sources tell CBS News multiple alarms

rang out on ship after several failed

attempts to fix the loss of propulsion

the pilot issued a Mayday call giving

officials time to stop traffic on the

bridge these people are heroes they

saved lives last night the impact of the

crash was so loud it jolted Donald

heimbuck who lives nearby out of his

sleep you up what did it feel like it

felt just like an earthquake we've had

some earthquakes here before and that's

exactly what it felt like and associated

with that was the Rolling Thunder which

I thought was very unusual um what was

the Rolling Thunder it was the sound of

the bridge collapsing into the psico

river well it's just incredible to see

this firsthand I mean we are not far

from this and of course this bridge

carries some 30,000 people every day it

is a major commuter route and now it is

completely shut down the FBI using

robotic cameras underwater to search for

six construction workers who who were on

the bridge they are now presumed dead by

their employer two survivors were pulled

from the chili water this morning 24

members of the NTSB are on the site

leading the investigation they want to

examine the voyage data recorder it will

be critical it's a critical piece of our

investigation which is why we have a

record team here authorities say the

Singapore flagged vessel was headed from

Baltimore to Sri Lanka going 9 mph none

of the crew was hurt today President Joe

Biden said the federal government will

quote move Heaven and Earth to reopen

the port and pay for the rebuilding I

told them we're going to send all the

federal resources they need as we

respond to this emergency and I mean all

the federal resources and we're going to

rebuild that Port together and evening

news ancher Nora odonald joins us now

from the site in Baltimore Nora what's

the latest you're hearing about the

search effort and investigation effort

and and how hard is that to do given the

weather yeah it is cold here and the

water are chilly but what we heard from

federal state and local authorities is

that all day long they have been

operating as if this is a search and

rescue operation but we did hear from

the construction company today that said

that they believe that all six of their

workers are presumed dead there were two

survivors um one who fell and apparently

survived in is at Baltimore Shock Trauma

and then another who Governor West Moore

told us in an interview was the leader

of the group and that's

miraculously uh was able to survive the

governor meeting with some of the

families of those uh who are unaccounted

for missing and saying that they're a

prayerful group of people and so

certainly uh that's part of the big

concern here even before they talk about

rebuilding they're really just concerned

about the victims here and you know just

on a personal note um John you know I

we're here outside someone's home just

over the river here we went out on a

boat today with someone who's lived here

his entire life uh Jimmy he is in in the

cement business and he said you just

can't believe it I mean he he woke up in

the middle of the night he took his boat

out in the middle of the night he said

he just he never thought something like

this would happen people really are in a

state of of shock about what has

happened here that bridge as someone who

grew up in that area that bridge is a

massive part of your life if you live

around there even if you don't live

nearby uh it must be totally devastating

to the community tell me Nora about the

investigation part of it what are some

of the key questions that remain

unanswered yeah I mean that bridge is

part of the skyline here in Baltimore as

you say the investigation ongoing at

this hour one of the things we heard

today was that there is so much Twisted

Metal and debris in the waters that that

has slowed efforts uh Chris Van Cleave

you know who's our transportation

correspondent has been talking with

officials and you know he said today

it's it's like a an a US nimit style

aircraft carrier plunging into a bridge

I mean that's how heavy these ships are

three times the weight of cargo than it

was just decades ago it's very very

heavy that has caused a lot of debris

that's in the water that is slowing and

hampering the investigation but one of

the things they're going to be looking

at the maintenance record of that ship I

mean how does the power go out I mean

you look at that video very closely that

we showed in our piece tonight for the

CBS Evening News you know the lights

flickering on and off I mean how does

that happen you know um so they're going

to be looking at that were there

problems with the propulsion in the past

so certainly the ship's maintenance

maintenance record is part of that

they'll also of course look at the

stability of the bridge involved and

they say this could take months they're

going to look for what is it essentially

a a voyage they have a data recorder on

on board the ship too to look at that

but I have to tell you John the one

thing I was struck about in just talking

to officials today is that at the last

minute I mean this happened so quickly

that the last minute there was that

Mayday call it got to the transportation

officials at Maryland they stopped

additional traffic from getting on that

bridge had that not happened this would

have been far worse John thank God it

did Nora odonnell on the scene force in

Baltimore thank you Nora perhaps you've

had a nightmare where you cannot stop

the crash you see coming and all the

tools at your disposal are useless

here's our CBS News senior

Transportation correspondent Chris Van

CLE with a report on what happened on

that shipping vessel just before imp

by Daybreak the force of the Collision

was clear pieces of the mangled Francis

Scott Key bridge and crushed cargo

containers littered the deck of the

dolly but the first sign of trouble here

when the lights flickered and went out

on board the giant ship had lost its

engine its electronics and much of its

ability to steer leaving it on a

collision course with the bridge and

little time to avert disaster a Mayday

call went out as the nightmare scenario

unfolded Michael kachari is a former

NTSB senior Marine investigator losing

power as you're approaching a bridge uh

would be just about the worst case

scenario loaded down with heavy

containers the captain tried to quickly

slow down the more than 900t long cargo

ship by dropping its Port anchor dark

smoke could be seen billowing from its

Stacks likely the backup generator

coming online but the ship never

regained engine power and it struck one

of the two main structural support

Columns of the bridge Ben schaer is a

structural engineer one the bridge was

struck by a containership of that size

there's not a bridge that we build you

know that's any level of economy and

efficiency that that that's going to

survive that it's happened before in

1980 during a blinding thunderstorm a

cargo ship slammed into a support column

of Tampa's Sunshine Skyway Bridge a

12200 ft span collapsed 35 people were

killed since then cargo ships have more

than quadrupled in size in the world of

infrastructure system it's a failure

right I mean the the bridge is gone the

port is closed people have died the NTSB

is going to have to contend with a lot

of debris on that ship and in the water

but they want to get their hands on the

voice and data recorder that should be

on that ship they're also going to pour

over its maintenance history including

reports there may have been an

inspection that turned up problems with

the propulsion System earlier this year

but they're also going to look at the

design and maintenance of the bridge

John Chris Van Cleveland Baltimore of

for us thank you Chris