Location of remaining Baltimore Key Bridge collapse victims’ bodies unknown, says Coast Guard

US Coast Guard officials said the locations of the remaining three Baltimore Bridge victims who plunged to their deaths are unknown because “there’s so much stuff underneath you can’t see”.

On 26 March, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed over the Patapsco River, sending at least seven out of eight construction workers on top of it into the water. One of the victims was immediately rescued from the water. It’s not clear how the other was saved.

A day later, the bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, from Mexico and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Guatemala were recovered from the scene. On Friday, police recovered the body of 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval. The bodies of three men: Jose Mynor Lopez, Miguel Luna and Carlos Hernandez remain missing.

Recovery operations for the victims were called off last month. But the Coast Guard said “safety parameters” have been established in case they are discovered accidentally.

“There’s so much stuff underneath that you can’t see,” US Coast Guard petty officer 3rd class Carmen Carver told The Independent. “We can’t speculate where they might have fallen or gotten trapped under.”

The agency is the federal on-scene coordinator tasked with maintaining the transportion system and ensuring the port is safe to reopen.

Last month, Superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police Colonel Roland L Butler Jr said that divers were not able to get into the area where they believed bodies to be because of debris in the water.

“The sonar simply said that they cannot get to that area because it was fully encased in the superstructure,” Mr Butler said.

In a statement responding to the Coast Guard’s claim, he said, “The collapse of the Key Bridge is undoubtedly one of the most challenging tragedies we have faced as a law enforcement agency. Along with our local, state and federal public safety partners, we will not give up.

“There are families still waiting to hear if we have found their loved one.  I can promise you, we are fully committed to finding closure for each of these families.”

Unified Command has been able to establish two temporary channels in an effort to reopen the Port of Baltimore. Still, those efforts do not allow for the flow of commercial traffic.

Authorities hope to open a third channel at the end of April with a depth of 35 feet and width of 280 feet, according to a timeline released by the US Army Corps on Engineers last week. The Port of Baltimore should open by the end of May as officials work to create a permanent federal channel that is 700 feet wide and 50 feet deep.

When the port is finally cleared, the Dali, the ship that crashed into the bridge, will be able to move.

US Coast Guard petty officer 1st class Claudio Giugliano, a marine science technician, told The Independent that if remains are found during future dive operations, then all work will stop.

“The proper division will be alerted and they will come conduct dive operations and recovery will happen”, he said.

The government agencies responding to the search, which include the US Coast Guard, Maryland State Police and US Army Corps of Engineers said they want to return the victims’ remains to their families but that little can be done until they remove the bridge’s wreckage, citing unsafe conditions for divers.