Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Sri Lankan Sailor Stranded Amidst Probe

COLOMBO (News 1st) - A Sri Lankan sailor is among 21 crew members stuck on board a container ship involved in a bridge collapse in Baltimore since March 26, foreign media reported.

The Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and the ongoing investigation has confined the crew to the vessel for the past seven weeks.

The crew has been unable to disembark because of visa restrictions, a lack of required shore passes and parallel ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FBI.

The FBI has also confiscated the crew's phones as part of the probe, leaving them with no way to contact their families back home.

The Dali - a 948ft (289m) container ship was at the start of a 27-day journey from Baltimore to Sri Lanka when it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending thousands of tonnes of steel and cement into the Patapsco. It left the ship stranded under a massive expanse of shredded metal.