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moving 100,000 miles of infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications supports c-spans a public service, along with these other television providers, even you a front row seat to democracy. >> now, ntsb chair gives an update on the investigation into the deadly key bridge collapsed baltimore, maryland. >> thank you for joining us. i am the chair of the national transportation safety board. with me today is one of our newest board members, alvin brown. this is his training launch. we have our investigator in charge. we call them the iic. as i mentioned, we arrived on

scene yesterday at about 6:00 a.m. but the team came in from across the country throughout the day. it was a day to get our bearings.

we set up our family assistance program and began to develop our investigative plan and request documents that we need in order to conduct our investigation. today is really the first full investigative day on scene. we were able to board the vessel. i boarded the vessel around noon along with our highway safety team. i can talk about that in a bit. i want to take a moment before i discuss some of the factual information we've been able to identify and speak to the families. on behalf of the national transportation safety board, i want to extend our deepest condolences. you are in our thoughts and prayers as the days, months, years ahead go forward. certainly we are focused on you. our entire mission is to save lives and our aim is to prevent this from reoccurring. we are so very sorry for all that you are going through. it's unimaginable. truly we think about you throughout this investigation. as i mentioned yesterday, for those who may not be familiar, the national transportation safety board is an independent federal agency. we are charged by congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the united states and significant events in

all modes of transportation. that includes bridge collapses and it includes marine accidents and incidents. our mission is to determine why something happens, how it happened, and to prevent it from reoccurring. again, to save lives. i want to talk a little bit about how we conduct the investigation but i think it's really important for folks to understand that we will not analyze any of the information we are collecting. we will not provide any sort of findings, conclusions, or any safety recommendations while on scene. our entire focus on scene is to collect the perishable evidence. that's documenting the scene, taking photographs, taking any sort of electronics or components. whatever goes away once the scene is cleaned up.

we need to collect that information for investigation. when it comes to digging through inspections, maintenance records, that can be done when we leave. right now, is focused on the scene itself. to conduct our investigation, we work with parties to the investigation. parties to the investigation provide us technical information. this is factual information that we use as part of our fact-finding. so if we need bridge inspection data, we would ask the federal highway administration or information about coast guard inspections, we would ask the coast guard. parties to the investigation are the united states coast guard, maryland transportation authority, the association of

maryland pilots and we've invited grace ocean private limited. grace ocean is the owner of the vessel. cindy g -- synergy is the operator of the vessel. again, these parties are part of the fact-finding. they do not connect analysis for the ntsb. the ntsb does that independently on its own and then we do our own findings, our own probable cause, and our own safety recommendations. now in order to effectively carry out an investigation, we have experts throughout the ntsb in different areas. so we break up our investigation into groups. those groups focus on their particular areas of expertise. in this safety investigation, we have a nautical operations group. this group gathers evidence to document the actions taken by the vessel, the procedures for the safe operation of the vessel, company oversight,

waterway management, safety management, and regulatory oversight. that group would and has collected and has asked for information on duty records, licensing, training. they requested the crew list. we were able to confirm that there were 21 crew members on board the vessel at the time of this accident, plus two pilots. that's 21 crew members plus two pilots, for a total of 23 individuals on board the vessel at the time of the accident. they also were able to obtain the cargo manifest. the cargo manifest, we did bring in one of ntsb's senior hazmat investigators today to begin to look at the cargo and cargo manifest.

he was able to identify 56 containers of hazardous materials. that is 764 tons of hazardous materials. mostly corrosives, flammables, and some miscellaneous hazardous materials, class nine hazardous materials which would include lithium-ion batteries. some of the hazmat containers were breached. we have seen sheen on the waterway. the federal state and local authorities are aware of that. they will be in charge of addressing those issues. but the ntsb, as part of our safety investigation, documents that type of release, documents the damage, and documents the types of materials involved in

our investigation. we also have an engineering group which gathers evidence to document the design and operation of engineering systems including the vessel propulsion, steering, and power. the operations in engineering group was able to board the vessel last night and they did a walk-through of the vessel including the bridge and the engine room. they were looking for other electronic components. any sort of downloadable recorders, cameras, cctv. they did not find any of those things. but that search continues. they've also requested a number of documents including maintenance and inspection history.

and are, as we speak, conducting interviews on board the vessel. those interviews began at 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. those are with the crew members on board the vessel. and then again, i mention that we did board again today at 1:00. that was pretty much the entire team, me, plus the office of highway safety, marine safety. member brown. looked at the damage. we were able to take a look at protection. we looked at some of the damage to the containers and certainly the bridge structure. we have a recorders group which is responsible for locating, retrieving, and downloading any recorder or recorded information that may relate to the accident.

we do have the voyage data recorder. they worked on that all day to validate that information. they also have a printout of the alarms. they still have to go back and look at that and validate that information at a later time. in addition to that, our survival factors group interviewed or discussed with the maryland transportation authority police the timeline of events that occurred around the time of the bridge strike. the two sets of information were putting together in an timeline that we will release through our social media channels. from right now, i'm going to ask marcel to go through the voyage data recorder information that we have as well as some of the

information that we gathered from the police. >> thank you, chair. information from the data recorder was successfully recovered on the morning of the accident by the u.s. coast guard. it was provided to the ntsb upon our arrival. six hours of data was provided to the ntsb. the recording included the time from midnight to 6:00. by regulation, the video must record 30 days of history. converted to local eastern daylight time. all information is preliminary and subject to final validation. the data is comprised of audio from the ship's bridge as well as recordings from vhs and high-frequency radios. the quality of the audio varies widely because of the high levels of background noise and alarms.

additional analysis will be performed at the lab to filter out the audio and improve its quality. it recorded limited sensor data. an example of the data recorded includes ship speed, engine rpm, ship heading, and rotor angle. ntsb engineers are working to identify and validate all of the data. it recorded the ship's departure at approximately 12:39. it recorded the ship's transit outbound in the fort mchenry channel and the striking of the francis scott key bridge bridge. the ship had entered the channel. by 1:24, the ship was underway on a true heading of approximately 141.

in the fort mchenry channel at a speed of approximately eight knots. approximately 42 miles an hour. numerous alarms were recorded on the ship's audio. at the same time, the sensor data stopped recording. video audio continue to record using a redundant power source. at around 01:26, the video resumed recording sensor data. the ship's pilot made a general call for tugs in the vicinity to assist. the dispatcher called the duty officer regarding the blackout.

the pilot ordered to drop the support anchor and ordered additional steering commands. at 1:27:25, the power issued a radio call reporting that they had lost all power and was approaching the bridge. around this time, the following also occurred. the duty officer radioed two of the units that were already on scene due to construction on the bridge. one on each side of the bridge. and ordered them to close traffic on the bridge. all lanes were then shut down. the ship speed overground was recorded at under seven knots or eight miles per hour.

from this moment the video audio , recorded sounds consistent with the collision of the bridge. around this time, cameras show the lights of the bridge extinguishing. additional analysis and comparison with other time sources will be needed to determine the exact time of contact. the pilot reported the bridge down and radioed the coast guard. ntsb will later convene a group of technical experts to review the entire recording and develop a detailed transcript of the dialogue and the event alarms is recorded. >> a few areas that i just want to clarify. the data that we received from the coast guard, they were able to obtain on the bridge by downloading the information from

the vdr from midnight to 6:00 a.m. that's a standard timeframe. they provide that immediately so we can see the timeframe around when the accident or incident occurred. knowing that we can go back and get the rest. there should be 30 days there. this is the immediate information that they give us but it's -- i don't want anyone to think that anything was being held back. that's very standard information. i want to thank the coast guard for that. it was pretty immediate, done right away and they provided us , with a thumb drive that we are able to evaluate back in our lab at headquarters. and i'm sure you will have questions on that. i do want to also say, i've seen

a lot of comparison between the vdr and cvr and fdr's and black boxes on commercial airliners. this is really a basic system. fdr would give you 1000 parameters. that's not this. vdr is basic. it's a snapshot of the major systems on a vessel. we have long wanted more recording, more parameters to be recorded on a vdr. hopefully that is something that we can provide. happy to answer more questions about that timeline. before i do, i want to continue with what our team has done. our survival factors group. their whole role is to examine the response. so they were able to obtain dispatch logs from the maryland transportation authority, the

baltimore county fire department, the baltimore city fire department to begin to put together a timeline. they will be conducting interviews tomorrow, including with a few people in the bridge area. now we also have from our office of highway safety a bridge structures group. many know that the bridge was built in 1976. it has three spans. the main span is 1200 feet. the entire bridge is 9090 feet. the average annual daily traffic on the bridge is 30,767 vehicles per day. 30,767 vehicles per day. the bridge is fracture critical. it's a fracture critical bridge.

what that means is if a member fails, that would likely cause a portion of or the entire bridge to collapse. there's no redundancy. the preferred method for building bridges today is that there is redundancy built in, whether that's transmitting loads to another member or some sort of structural redundancy. the bridge did not have redundancies. there are 17,468 fracture critical bridges in the united states. out of 615,000 bridges total. that comes from the federal highway administration. this bridge was in satisfactory condition. the last fracture critical inspection was in may 2023. we have not been able to go through that inspection and all the documents.

but that will occur after we leave the on-scene portion. we've also requested all fracture critical, routine, and underwater inspections of the bridge over the last decade. once we receive that, we will begin to go through all of those documents. we've also requested information on peer protection on all maryland transportation authority owned bridges. they have four bridges where we would have information on peer protection. we are looking at that. our family assistance team continues to do their work and outreach to the families. they provide them with assistance immediately on scene, connect them with the resources that they need. we continue to work with the

families throughout the course of the investigation leading up to the board meeting and many times for many years, many worked to get a safety recommendations implemented to improve safety. with that, when it comes to analysis of any of the records that we are requesting, that's going to take place later. right now, we are focused on obtaining information, getting the perishable evidence, conducting the interviews. i will take questions. but i will call on you. one question at a time. please provide your name and affiliation. >> abc 7 news in washington, d.c. question about your work here in the effort you have to make for the recovery you are trying to get regarding information, things that are perishable. all of the challenges on top of

that with metal in the water, difficulty of having a ship with hazardous materials. what can you compare this effort to in other scenarios you've dealt with in the past? >> i mean, it's a massive undertaking for an investigation. it's a very tragic event. it's multimodal. there's a lot of information we need to collect. a lot that we need to analyze. many different components to the investigation. but this was not new for the ntsb. we've conducted other investigations of bridge strikes, bridge collapses. we have an amazing team of individuals who are focused on very specific areas of expertise. i have no doubt that we will be able to pull this together in hopefully 12 to 24 months.

that said, we will not hesitate to issue urgent safety recommendations before that time if we need to. >> you said that there was limited sensor data from the voyage data recorder. engine, rpm heading, rotor angle, heading. how upsetting is that to you, knowing that there were not more parameters? >> this is a newer -- the question is the parameters on the vdr and limited information that data recorders provide. i will ask marcel to add to my answer. this was a newer model. it did have additional features. but it is very basic compared to a flight data recorder where we would have 1000 parameters. it would be good to have that information, key to have that information for an investigation.

marcel can provide additional information on what might be missing. >> this is a voyage data recorder. it's not a ship wide system recorder. most of what is reported is from the bridge like gps, the audio, rotor feedback and command are recorded on there. not engineering, the temperature of each cylinder, power distribution center, those things are not recorded on a voyage data recorder. we are looking for other sources of data in the engine room that would give us that data. we do have the electronic chart. >> one tiny follow-up. will that have been able -- would that have been able to tell what the source of the power outage on board the ship was? >> we would have to determine that as part of our analysis and

the investigation. it's too early to tell. >> wv abigail -- wbal in baltimore. you said that there were 56 containers of hazardous materials on board the ship. how many of those are in the water? what's the timeline to getting those out of the water? and the rest of the containers that are sitting in the ship. >> i did see some containers in the water and some breached significantly on the vessel itself. i don't have an exact number but it is something that we can provide in an update and certainly in our preliminary report which should be out in two to four weeks. >> the timeline on getting that out of the water? >> that's not something that the ntsb does as part of our safety investigation. that is something that i would refer to the federal, state, and local authorities. >> wtop. could you characterize the level of concern about this hazardous material link?

the sheen on the water should , people be concerned about this right now? is there anything being done to mitigate that? >> the authorities are aware. of the materials themselves. i would just direct you to them for those sorts of questions. >> can i ask you to give me the time that the pilot called for the tugs? i didn't get that as quickly as you mentioned it. when the pilot called for the tugs, confirming the ship had no tugs at all helping it navigate through the waters before it hit the ridge. >> that's correct. the tugboats help the vessel leave the port and then get into the main ship channel. and then they leave. once it's on its way, it's a straight shot through the channel. there are no tugs with the

vessel at that time. they were calling for tugs. do you have about timeframe? >> the pilot made that call at 1:26:39 according to the vdr. >> yes? >> washington post. did the ship have power problems before? >> there was a question on concerns about power or reports of concerns of power outages on the vessel prior to that moment of the bridge striking. we have seen and read reports of that. we've heard reports of that. that's all part of our investigation that we will have to look into and verify. there was a question on the food

situation with the workers on board. the cook was cooking when i got on board. it smelled very good. [laughter] i was very hungry. so i don't have any other information other than that. but we were able to engage with some of the crewmembers and others are part of the interviews that are ongoing. >> >> no information on how long they will be there? >> information on how long they will be there, that's not information i have at this time sir. >> you said there were reports of potential outages. days, weeks, months? can you give us any kind of timeline? >> for the outages on the vessel? you are asking about outages on the vessel prior to this moment of striking the bridge? we don't have any information of outages on board the vessel prior to that time. certainly we are going to look

at what we can get from the vtr -- vdr data because there should be 30 days. hopefully we will be able to find something in that data if the entire 30 days is there. but we are aware of the reports and that is something we need to look into. >> you mention when you were doing the tiktok that some of the audio was obscured when the alarms started sounding. can you give us some sense as to what the experience on the bridge was like in those moments? was it a cacophony of alarms? was it calm? what were you able to take from the recordings? >> sure. i actually don't have that information right now. that's why we take the data back to our lab where we can filter out some of the background noise

and some of those alarms as well. we will bring in parties that will help us understand what we are hearing, who is talking if there's a foreign language. that's why we have parties to come to join us and use the software that we have back in washington to do that. we are not able to do that on scene here. >> have you not listened to the recordings? >> i have not. that is the recording group that does that. >> when you experience on the ship, the state of the ship, the bridge, the conditions? >> what we experienced on the state of the vessel and the condition is the question. i mean, it's pretty devastating , certainly. seeing not just what's going on with the cargo containers but just looking at what was a bridge span. three bridge spans. that's pretty much gone.

it is just utter devastation. when i look at something like that, i'm thinking not about the container ships that are coming through, not about traffic getting back up and running on the bridge. i'm thinking about the families who have lost loved ones and the families that are waiting to reunite with loved ones. what they must be going through. on the alarm information, just to add to that, we have the logs. we will go through that. but when we provide the transcript, a lot more will be on the transcript which we will read out during the course of the investigation. >> have you spoken to the pilot at this point? >> the question is, have we spoken with the pilot?

there were two pilots on board at the time. those interviews are scheduled for tomorrow. >> have you spoken to the ship captain? >> one of those interviews occurred today along with the mate. and chief engineer and one of the other engineers. i don't have a readout of those types of interviews because they are currently ongoing. our team was still on the vessel when i came to the press conference. >> baltimore banner. [inaudible] >> the question is on reports in

the media about contamination in the fuel. as part of any investigation by the ntsb, we look at the fuel system. we collect a sample of the fuel. in this particular situation, it would be marine diesel fuel. we still have to do that. that sample will be taken and we will analyze the quality, any sort of contaminants. we will look at viscosity. that will be part of our investigation. >> how quickly was the crew in touch with authorities? >> the timeline? how quickly the crew was in touch with authorities. you have the timeline. >> the call went out from the crew about the bridge being down

at 1:29:39. we have the bridge falling at about 1:29:00. >> when did you first know something was wrong? >> our first indication of a problem was when the pilot called for tugs. >> [inaudible] >> hold on. >> 1:26:39 is when the pilot called for tugs. >> that would be the indication of the first sign of needing help. >> how long was that after the vdr stop recording? 1:26 something? >> 1:24:59. >> thank you. was there any control left in the boat after these alarms went off? was there any hope that they could steer the ship back onto

the lane? was it out of control? >> first of all, we've seen the recordings. we have data which is consistent with a power outage. however, we don't have information, factual information, that can confirm that power outage. so we aren't there yet. that's why we are looking for more information on the ship. >> you have a video that pretty much shows everything that happened in the crash. how helpful is a video that shows what happened? >> the video -- the question is how helpful the video is. we've seen it circulating. of the bridge strike. certainly it is helpful. but the ntsb has to focus on data that we are able to

validate as part of our investigation. the public, the world relies on us to be independent, thorough, fact-based, and its meticulous work. but because we do that, we get to the right solutions as part of our investigation. we are very careful not to jump to conclusions. to speculate. so it's helpful to have. but what is really helpful is the information that we are able to validate. that takes time. that will lead us to the findings, probable cause and safety recommendations that we will issue. yes. >> can you tell me exactly the kind of material that was

breached and in the waterway? >> the questions are the types of hazardous materials that were breached. the information that i have right now of the containers of hazardous materials, a total of 56 containers. on those contents on what was in , the actual breached containers, we will have to provide you more information on that. in total, it was a number of corrosives, flammable materials, and we have some miscellaneous what is class nine miscellaneous hazardous materials which is where the lithium-ion batteries would be. >> do you know how much approximately is in the waterway right now? >> the question is how much would be in the waterway, how big the bill would be. first of all we have to get to

, some of those containers. it's a pretty dangerous situation in that area. we can't go in there. i doubt any other federal authorities right now could go to see how much is left in the containers themselves. last question. >> i'm curious. has the ship regains power and if the bridge wasn't destroyed, would it be able to move? >> that's a lot of assumptions. for the ntsb, we don't speculate. we don't make assumptions on the what if. right now, we are focused on the facts and what occurred in the accident to determine what happened to prevent it from reoccurring. >> can you talk to us about the safety challenges? earlier today, the governor said they had to suspend the recovery mission because it was unsafe for the divers. i'm wondering, are there any other challenges that you are facing outside of the hazardous

material? >> the question is on the challenges for our team. there's a number of challenges. today it was raining. i will say what it requires to go to the vessel. mdta police took us on a smaller vessel out to the container ship. we are going up a jacob's ladder outside of the vessel, all of us. once we get up there, there's a lot to traverse. it is raining, slippery. we have the hazardous materials. we have containers that are open. we certainly have structural damage everywhere. so we have to make sure that we have our safety gear, that we are focused on holding both

handrails at the same time and being safe. in wet conditions. and it is cold. that can be very difficult. so safety is a top priority. certainly for us, it's a value for the ntsb. but it is very difficult. i will say, just being out there when baltimore city and county police today, who were doing a lot of the work on the recovery mission -- it's cold. it's cold water. it's raining. you have current. all sorts of waterway challenges. it can be very dangerous. listen, everybody is focused on the right thing, which is reuniting families with their loved ones. that has to be our main focus. everything else in the investigation can wait.

certainly we are doing what we can do, but that's everyone's focus right now. thank you so much. >> does the ship have power? >> right now it cannot move. >> they are not sitting in the dark, right? >> they are not sitting in the dark right now but it cannot move right now. that's a question on whether the ship can move. no. >> washington journal. our form evolving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from washington, d.c. and across the country. thursday morning, rebecca roberts discusses her book, untold power, about first lady edith wilson and the significance of women's history month. and then aaron filardi talks

about organization's efforts to increase the number of women serving in public office. washington journal. join the conversation live at 7:00 eastern on thursday morning on c-span, c-span now, or c-span.org. >> thursday, panelists discuss tax policy and the upcoming expiration of tax cuts passed in 2017. hosted by the committee for a responsible federal budget, you can watch the summit live starting at 3:40 pm on c-span, c-span now, or c-span.org. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings in hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, theou