Divers recovered 2 victims trapped in vehicle after Baltimore bridge collapse

on that bridge collapse we're going to listen in we transitioned from search and rescue to recovery we need to bring a sense of closure and comfort to the families and we take that very seriously and to all the families I say less than an hour after the collapse we had divers in the water at 2:25 a.m. to begin search and rescue this morning we had divers in the water starting at 6:00 a.m. for search and Recovery this is not a conclusion it's a continuation and we take this phase just as seriousl

y and just as personally as we took the last phase the collapse of the Key Bridge is not just a Maryland crisis the collapse of the Key Bridge is a global crisis the economy and the world's economy depends on the Port of Baltimore the port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in the country shortly before 10:00 a.m. divers located a red pickup truck submerged in approximately 25 ft of water in the area of the middle span of the bridge divers recovered two V two victims o

f this tragedy trapped within the vehicle the victims were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes 35 years old of Baltimore and Doran ranal Castillo Caba 26 years old of dond their family members were notified just over an hour ago in person by Maryland state police Personnel with Crisis Intervention Personnel present knowing the gravity of this we provided them with a list of resources that they can refer to and refer their friends and family to at this point based upon the conditions we're

now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation because of the superstructure surrounding the vehicle what we believe are the vehicles and the amount of concrete and debris divers are no longer a able to safely navigate or operate around that we have exhausted all search efforts in the areas around this this wreckage and based on Sonar scans we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the super structure and concrete that we tragically saw come down at this point as this moves to a

salvage recovery effort the Maryland State Police will continue to support the unified command as the Salvage assessment phase takes place and the US Coast Guard will brief you addition additional information regarding what to expect and possibly how long this could take but I'll tell you now there's no definitive timeline on this thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media