tonight top story reporting from Baltimore at the keybridge disaster a massive cargo vessel nearly as long as the Empire State Building slamming into a bridge sending it tumbling into the river and tonight six construction workers presumed dead after plunging into the dark and frigid Waters officials from the construction company making that heartbreaking announcement the terrifying crash caught on camera jolting people from their beds rescue crews pulling two of the eight crew members from the
river the governor issuing a state of emergency we speak with Governor Westmore tonight about the latest on the search and the long road ahead also tonight critical Mayday call before slamming into the bridge the ship issuing an urgent Mayday warning stating they lost power that call attributed to saving lives authorities able to stop traffic just moments before the collapse what we know about that distress call searching for a cause Federal State officials launching investigations into what wen
t wrong the questions about how fast the vessel was traveling and a previous crash linked to the same ship plus the massive engineering task to remove debris from the water abortion access challenge the Supreme Court appearing skeptical about a suit pushing to limit access of a widely used abortion pill justices questioning anti-abortion doctors on the lawsuits Merit as large crowds gather outside the court the concerns the case could undercut FDA approval for other drugs now on the market plus
rfk's running mate Robert F Kennedy Jr choosing a loyer and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his VP pick what RFK believes she brings to his Longshot bid for the White House the backlash he faces from his own family as he presses on with his campaign top story starts right [Music] now good evening we are live tonight from Baltimore after a terrifying and tragic bridge collapse forever changing the lives of those who live here as we come on the air tonight we're learning that six construction work
ers are presumed dead after a massive cargo ship slammed into the iconic Francis Scott Key bridge just behind me you can still see the massive cargo vessel there the tragic news from the construction company just heartbreaking for the loved ones of the missing men who desperately waited for news of their fate this dramatic video showing the exact moment of impact a nearly 1,000 ft container ship losing power plowing into a piling supporting the bridge the structure collapsing into the water the
ship trapped in the mangled mess devastating images from rescue teams as First Responders arrived on the scene searching for survivors at least eight construction workers plunged into the dark and frigid Waters below Crews rescuing two people one in serious condition another miraculously in good condition and daylight revealing the magnitude of the destruction piles of twisted metal sticking out of the water many waking up to the frightening reality that the bridge was gone some living nearby mi
staking the crash for an earthquake because of the impact and the collapse tonight we speak with the governor about the moment he found out about that catastrophic collapse the crash cutting off the iconic bridge and the Waterway below both playing a vital role you can see here in transportation the port of B altimore where the ship came from is one of the largest in this country I spoke with a long shoreman who loaded cargo onto the ship just hours before the crash what he said about the moment
s before it left port and the disbelief when he woke up to the reality of what had just happened before and after video showing the massive undertaking that lies ahead removing all of that debris searching for Transit Alternatives and coping with all the tragedy that now leaves a mark on the city the governor is saying the situation could have been much worse had the ship not sent out a Mayday signal allowing authorities to scramble and stop that traffic seconds before the collapse tonight we're
pieing together what happened as many questions still remain unanswered inside of This Disaster Zone the search for six construction workers who plummeted into murky and frigid Waters the record showing the catastrophic collision and collapse of the Key Bridge the whole Bridge just fell down star star whoever everybody the whole Bridge just collapsed a live stream capturing the moments a nearly 1,000 fot cargo ship smashed into Baltimore's iconic Francis Scott Key bridge sending it plunging nea
rly 200 ft it looked like something out of a an action movie Maryland Transportation officials say a construction crew was on the bridge at the time of the crash filling potholes the company tonight telling NBC news six of those workers are presumed dead and just one survived we went into the air late this afternoon as we fly over this disaster you can actually see how the bridge collapsed when the vessel crashed into those concrete pilings they seem to crack sending the bridge all that steel in
to the cargo vessel and then right into the river the webs of mangled steel that tore through the ship's Hall and are still jutting out of the water making conditions unsafe for dive teams to enter on this helicopter we have a special camera that has a hyper zooom feature and as we get closer to the cargo vessel you're struck by how the Bridge something that at one point looked so sturdy with concrete and steel and those pilings is now almost completely gone or wrapped around the vessel that cra
shed into it the vessel identified as the Singapore flag container ship dolly was heading to Sri Lanka out of the Port of Baltimore the ship's operator Synergy says all crew members have been accounted for and that it's cooperating with the investigation we chose uh not to board the vessel today uh to allow some time for the search and Recovery which we did not want to interfere with the NTSB which is leading that investigation says it will know more about what went wrong once it boards the ship
from up here you also get a sense of just how big this ship is right it's 950 ft long that's almost about the same size as the Empire State Building and when you look at the deck it is covered in containers stacked nearly 10 high here's what we know right now at 1:24 a.m. on the live stream you can see the ship's lights turn off authorities say the ship lost power and propulsion 1 minute later at 1:25 the lights flicker back on dark smoke starts to billow out of the ship's chimney and the ship
issued a Mayday call an urgent rush to stop vehicle traffic on the bridge Transit Police issuing this command at 1:27 a.m. I need one of you guys on the South Side one of you guys on the North side hold all traffic on the Key Bridge uh there's a ship approaching I just lost their steering so until they get that under control we got to stop all traffic at 128 the last few Vehicles passed the flashing lights of the construction crew being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge uh these peop
le are heroes they save Liv less they saved lives last night just 30 seconds after the last driver clears the bridge impact the Bridge's superstructure collapsing seconds later President Biden at the White House today expressing his support for the IES of those still missing on the collapse Bridge one he says he commuted over many times himself to the people of Baltimore who want to say we're with you we're going to stay with you as long as it takes the bridge which stretches more than a mile ac
ross the Patapsco River Saw roughly 31,000 Vehicles pass over it every day and soared over the Baltimore port the 11th busiest in the country I'm dired my team to move Heaven and Earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as you humanly possible just hours before the collapse long shoreman Shawn Jackson was loading cargo onto the ship did you notice anything strange yesterday with the ship or the crew or anything like that when you were loading it no I did not just a regular day you
know I would have never thought in a million years that would happen how dark is it out here at 1:30 in the morning it's dark it's dark I mean even in daytime you really can't see through the water cuz it's murky you know so at night time it's even worse and tonight we're learning more about that missing construction crew that was on the bridge contractor Jesus scampos worked with the missing men he says they're from Mexico Guatemala El Salvador and Honduras they came to Baltimore for a better
life and have families waiting at home he says they were good people people who came here to work residents shaken and confused by the overnight disaster I thought it was perhaps like a really low flying maybe a military jet perhaps a small earthquake you wake up and you see how quickly the bridge came down and it's like I mean was this thing held up with toothpicks with a fixture of their Community now gone all that's left for them to do is hope for a miracle for 47 years that's all we've known
and so this is uh this is this is uh not just not just unprecedented from what we're seeing and what we're looking at today it's heartbreaking and joining top story tonight is Maryland's governor Wes Moore Governor thank you so much for joining us I know it's been an incredible day night for you when you look over your shoulder and you see the Key Bridge that way and that massive cargo ship what goes through your head uh it doesn't look real that bridge has been here longer than I've been alive
uh as baltimoreans like we that that's that's part of our Skyline you know 35,000 people go over the Key Bridge every single day it's worth about $191 million of economic activity a day uh it's a core part of Who We Are and so uh so looking at looking at that uh and knowing the the heartache that a lot of families are feeling right now it just it still doesn't feel real when you run for governor you think about days like this but they're really not real until they actually happen what has been
the toughest conversation you've had today well you know I I had a chance to spend time with the families earlier and um and these are remarkable people Brave and and and prayerful families of the people that were on the bridge families of of the people on the bridge construction workers and um and I had a chance to pray with them I had a chance to pray for them and uh and their faith um that that God was going to protect them and their loved ones was was so strong and um and I think it's also o
ne of the things that when they let their family member go out that evening to go to work they never expected that would be the result and I think they ask you why why they were still on the bridge why they weren't able to to get off why there wasn't enough time were they were they confused I honestly the only conversations I had with them they were just they were just praying they were praying for uh for for a positive result and just hopeful I know at this point it would have to be a miracle t
he construction company has told NBC News it's likely the six are not going to survive this are there still active search and rescue operations going on now or or is it search and Recovery oh this is very much search and rescue um I I have I have instructed every resource at our disposal needs to go towards search and rescue um that uh that air Land and Sea all assets that we have available are going towards making sure that uh that that we can put our best effort forward uh to be able to find s
urvivors talk to me about the heroes you you mentioned them when you first spoke to the public earlier today and also about the river river Pilots we understand that they may have been the ones who first issued the mday call yeah and that time between the MayDay call and actually hitting the infrastructure and the infrastructure falling we we literally talking seconds and I even think about the First Responders the the the law enforcement officers who immediately sprung into action to try to kee
p other cars from going on the bridge they saved countless lives last night I think about the First Responders who you know we had people who police officers we had we had divers in the water uh you know literally in less than an hour after this happened these are people who are just you know when we say that we are Maryland tough and and that we're Baltimore strong these are people who epitomize what that means the people of Baltimore people of Maryland are going to want some answers and I know
maybe you don't have them right now it took I think 3 years to build that Bridge it's going to take a long time to clean it up it's going to take a long time to rebuild how does the Port of Baltimore how does this area get by with that bridge that main artery now down yeah I mean well first I want people to know we are committed to getting this done uh and and we will get this done and I'm thankful for the support of the bid Administration I've already been on the phone with both the president
and the vice president what did you tell the president what did you ask him did you ask him for for anything I I I I told the president that we need him and the president said and you got us uh and so hearing the president earlier at a press conference saying that we are going to rebuild this together he's watching the Secretary of Transportation spend the afternoon in Baltimore it meant the world to us because it really showed that this Administration is going to stand with us every step of the
way should America be worried that it's a massive cargo vessel but that it it sort of hit this bridge and the whole thing collapsed does America need to be worried about its infrastructure well I think it's important for all of us to take a a real a real focus on all of our nation's infrastructure I think that's actually part of the reason why we've put so much focus on roads and bridges over the process of these past few years because it is important that people have a sense of confidence in t
he roads and bridges and tunnels that we have uh you know not just in our state but all throughout all throughout our country if you look at what happened last night uh any vessel of that size moving at that speed there's there's not many infrastructure projects that could have taken that uh but we also do know this is still an opportunity for us to take a real understand of the infrastructure we have in our country no ships going in no Ships coming out have they given you any sense of when the
Port of Baltimore will be back open no I I know it's a it's a it's a priority for us to make sure that we can get cargo and infrastructure moving again uh but there is no set timeline because my focus right now is still very much on search and rescue Governor Moore we appreciate your time we thank you for being with us thank you so much with the search and rescue mission now underway questions on exactly how this tragic incident unfolded still remain for more on that NBC's Tom costell joins us n
ow to break it all down Tom we know the ship had lost power just minutes before the Collision do we know yet if the speed of the ship played any role in this as well and I know as I look over my shoulder here it was a massive cargo ship that was loaded to the brim with cargo yeah well I've talked to a civil engineer a professor at John's Hopkins University and he said first of all you had the ship traveling at 8 knots that's about 9.2 mph a pretty good clip when when you're inside the port it ha
d left its position there in the Port of Baltimore it was outbound trying to leave the harbor uh and that's when it experienced its propulsion problems it lost power and therefore couldn't control the navigation and it slammed into the structure that holds that bridge up the pylon if you will at a pretty good speed and the civil engineer I talked to John topkin said listen when you're moving that the the law of physics States when you're moving that much mass at that speed and you crash into som
ething you're going to do catastrophic damage and any bridge in America he said would suffer a similar fate at at that speed and with that much mass behind it the question really is well how much protection did those pylons have in other words you know when you see the Rockaway Bridge or verizo bridge I should say in New in New York Verano you know it's got tremendous Rock base around it to protect it almost like an island to protect the base and the question I think that the NTSB and Engineers
will look at going forward is do they need to reinforce future Pilon bases to protect them in some way and then Tom you know I think something you just said might startle a lot of viewers that this could happen in any port in any Bridge around America because we know these cargo ships are all over the East Coast the Southeast coast the West Coast uh along the lines of what you're just talking about about those barriers are there certain standards and have they changed over the years well I can't
speak to how the standards have changed over the years but clearly this bridge was designed to 1977 standards and the governor today said it was up to code uh but beyond that I can tell you that there there are very strict laws about who is on board the bridge of a ship when it's moving through US ports under us law any ship that comes in must have a local pilot there in on the bridge with the captain and that that local pilot therefore is there to navigate waterways that he or she knows very v
ery well because a captain who travels the world and maybe from Singapore cannot expect to understand and know the Waters of Port of Portland OR or Baltimore you name the harbor and we know that a pilot was in fact on this particular Bridge a local pilot and he's the one who called in the MayDay giving the alert to the bridge personnel to stop traffic so that you had fewer cars on the bridge at the time um so that is a very strict rule that is followed in every port in America and then and then
Tom you know you cover transportation for us you heard me talk with the governor about how long this will take have you heard from your sources a timeline of what it would look like until the Port of Baltimore again one of the major ports of this great country will reopen I think think they're looking at I've heard some talk specifically that Port people who work at the Port may not be back to work for 2 months uh I can tell you that the NTSB investigation they have 24 investigators on the scene
the NTSB is leading this investigation this will be a very very long meticulous process you probably will not have a definitive decision an announcement from the ntsp about the cause and all the contributing factors I would say for a year to 18 months knowing how they operate they're very methodical as it relates to though reopening the port I think you're talking 2 months probably and separate from that when you're talking about rebuilding the bridge Tom they're talking about this taking 5 to
10 years in the words of some civil engineers this was a massive massive structure and when they build it back if they build it back better with 21st century technology and making enough room for today's modern trucks it's entirely possible that that will take a long time as well you know Tom we can never forget what what likely is the loss of life here but what you just reported now the two months possibly that this port is closed and the years it's going to take to rebuild that bridge it's goi
ng to affect this community and really the country for a long time uh Tom costella who's been reporting on this for us throughout the day Tom we make the point I'm sorry let me just wrap that up if I can wrap it up I should have made the point it's critical because the supply chain is going to be affected on the east coast in a dramatic way right Products that come from overseas cars that's supposed to come into Port of Baltimore they're not going to be coming in and separately Carnival Cruise L
ines has already announced they're moving their Baltimore operations down to Norfolk uh because they can't get in and out of this port so the ripple effect is going to affect multiple sectors of the economy all right Tom costell putting into perspective for all of us Tom we appreciate all of your reporting for more on this investigation and what we could learn in the coming days I'm joined tonight by retired United States Coast Guard rear Admiral Jim Watson he was the director of prevention poli
cy for marine safety security and stewardship at the Coast Guard headquarters and was also responsible for ports and cargo Safety and Security and Maritime investigations we adal we're going to get to the video that I want you to walk our viewers through in just a moment but again just like I asked the governor when you look over your shoulder and you see that it is incredibly rare but I think a lot of Americans woke up and they were shocked at the catastrophe and what happened yeah I was shocke
d I mean you just don't ever dream that that's going to happen I grew up in Baltimore myself and we've all been over that bridge and uh of course I've been involved with chipping and it there it goes on in a very safe manner uh for years and years and years and then you wake up to something like this it's just shocking rear Admiral I I want our director Brett hly he's going to roll the live stream video and and I know you're an expert in this and I wanted to play this video for you so you could
watch it and then explain to our viewers the monitors right down here what exactly we're seeing in this video as the cargo ship appears to lose power yes so yes so I've seen this video before and the the ship is is operating it's fully lit up it uh apparently then loses power because all the lights go off now uh we know also that it regained its power and then it went off a second time uh ships have a and we're looking here looks to be a little bit sped up but I think it's it's it's now the at r
egular speed yes and so and so the ship you know people are going to be asking why did it hit the piling head on and essentially they had no control of it they had no control they they obviously had no control and uh if I'm I'm sure they were just uh you know scared to death of what was going to happen they put out a Mayday uh and fortunately I understand that the police were able to stop the traffic but in regards to the ship itself it it it it lost power probably on its main generators or in i
ts main switchboard where it in your house you have a a circuit breaker well that obviously blew and they have an emergency generator and an emergency switchboard and possibly that one failed what does the propulsion system do on a cargo vessel like that well it's it's just a single big diesel engine with a uh reduction gear and a and a big propeller um single propeller so there's only one uh engine one propeller no backup there's no backup on the ship like that um and it has a single Rudder and
the rudder requires electro electric control too it sounds like you're saying something very basic I know it's not that simple but I I appreciate you making it simple for us but I got I got to think there's got to be a backup for a ship that size that's carrying all that cargo and there's not well you do have the backup uh emergency generator and that should kick on and regain controls for you um even if the propulsion is not fully uh going you should be able to steer but when the when the seco
ndary fails as well then you might have something like this if it happens in the wrong time and the wrong place I know it's less than 24 hours but if you were investigating this like you have in the past who who are you looking at who do you think possibly could be to blame here well first of all we don't start looking for people to blame we we assume that everybody that is trained and licensed to do what they do did the thing properly but you look into every different aspect was it mechanical w
as was there a miscommunication of some kind uh there's a checklist they have to do before they leave there is a checklist they check the steering they check the engines everything is fully checked now it's possible something like that was missed but you have uh pilots in the Port of Baltimore to assist the the ship's crew which is a foreign crew um and they're going to look out for the Port of Baltimore that's their main job right um and and all those things will be cross checked the crew will
be uh drug tested for example um and then you will look through the ship and you'll uh go down into those engine spaces you'll check those electrical panels and the emergency generator and how long does it have to stay like this while that investigation is taking place or they move the ship and start picking up portions of the bridge you can move the ship I mean the biggest challenge you have there is all of the wreckage on the ship and I'm sure that's going to be the first priority is to get th
e port back open the ship uh needs to come into a safe harbor so that uh the structural Integrity of the ship can be checked you wouldn't want that ship to take on water in that location here how do they get the ship out is it a tugboat yes you would and and well once you lift off that uh Bridge structure you could just use a couple of tugs and you could move it to a birth and then how long you think it is to like they pick up the pieces of the bridge out of the water you think it's going to be
about two months you think it's going to be a while I can only guess that that's going to be a big job it's going to take some heavy equipment uh but in this part of the country we we do have some pretty heavy equipment I hope could be brought in quickly we Admiral Jim Watson we thank you for your expertise thanks for joining top story tonight we'll continue our coverage of this bridge collapse tragedy throughout the broadcast including more on what the search and rescue efforts look like today
as Crews tried to save those in the water a diving and Salvage expert who has led a team during a major tragedy similar to this joins top story and we're following the day's other major headlines tonight including RFK Jr announcing his running mate who will appear alongside the independent candidate on the presidential ticket this year plus the Supreme Court singling it's likely to reject a challenge to abortion pill access the reaction tonight from Washington stay with us a special edition of t
op story live from Baltimore we'll be right [Music] back we're back now in Washington where today the Supreme Court heard arguments on efforts to limit access to certain abortion pills outside the court large protests as the case take center stage in the fight for abortion rights here's Laura Jared hundreds rallied outside the Supreme Court today as inside the justices through cold water on an effort to roll back access to the most commonly used abortion pill in the country Mya prisone on the ma
rket for more than two decades the pill now increasingly used but a group of doctors and Advocates against abortion rights successfully sued last year to make the pill harder to obtain the first time a court ever invalidated an FDA approved drug the FDA violated federal law and its duty to keep women safe women are now left to receive these drugs in the mail or at their door room without ever having been checked by a doctor for life-threatening conditions that's reckless today the justices appea
red highly dubious doctors who've never prescribed M aistone and can't be forced to under federal law have the legal standing to Sue I don't think you have it for either one of those doctors the legal fight over Mya prisone now focused on the ways the FDA made the drug more widely available including allowing pills to ship by mail women to use it later into their pregnant and other Healthcare Providers to prescribe it changes that if not upheld would limit access to the pill particularly in red
states where in-person abortion procedures are now largely cut off the Biden Administration and drug manufacturer urging the justices that second guessing the FDA here could jeopardize approval of any drug on the market we won't go back back outside I came out here today because I want to see the abortion industrial complex um be dismantled Melanie Salazar came from San Francisco I have hope that one day we can live in a United States that is abortion free in all 50 states others like Alyssa Gre
enwood a mom of two who came to court the day Ro was overturned back today with her now 2-year-old I want her to look back as an adult and say we stood up on the right side of this for all I know I get pregnant and I don't want to be or I get pregnant and I can't carry it to term and it's a danger and I have to be alive for my kids who are here the court is expected to issue its decision by the end of June Tom Laura Jarett from the Supreme Court tonight Laura we thank you for that we want to tur
n out of California where Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced a running mate in his 2024 bid for the White House that pick and his decision to keep campaigning getting under the skin of other members of the famous Kennedy family who see him as a potential Biden spoiler NBC's Von hilard has more on who that VP pick is I'm proud to introduce to all of you the next Vice President of the United States of America Nicole shanan Independent presidential candidate Robert
F Kennedy Jor announcing his running mate at a rally in Oakland I never thought in a million years I would be up here running for a vice president Nicole Shanahan is a wealthy Silicon Valley lawyer entrepreneur and philanthropist the purpose of wealth is to help those in need the 38-year-old has no elected experience a win well improbable would make her the youngest vice president since the Civil War Shanahan turned heads as a mega donor to Kennedy just last month when she told the New York Tim
es that she was the one who spent $4 million to air an attention grabbing Super Bowl ad for him k kened k Kennedy's Renegade campaign combined with some Fringe views particularly on his anti an vacine positions prompting some members of his famous political family to speak out against him and vocally support President Biden instead my biggest concern about Bobby right now who I love dearly um is that as running as an independent candidate that he is going to siphon votes from Biden Kennedy is th
e nephew of President John F Kennedy his own father the former US attorney general Bobby Kennedy also ran for president and was assassinated on the campaign in 1968 RFK Jr's independent campaign less traditional Nicole and I both share doubts about the corporate captured uni party and that it can produce leaders capable of imagining a different version of America Shanahan's pick caps off a free willing VP search that floated famous outof thebox names like New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rogers a
nd former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura Shanahan unknown even to some of RFK Junior's supporters what do you think of Nicole Shanahan never heard of her I don't really know anything about her so that's why I'm here I want to find out what's going on a recent Reuters ipsus poll putting RFK support among registered voters at 15% that's causing concerns for the Biden and Trump camps over who he'll potentially draw supporters away from in a tightly contested race as a VP candidate today's announc
ement helps Shanahan to spend much more of her own money on the race with fewer campaign Finance restrictions that could be critical for getting on the ballot as a third party candidate and competing across all 50 states Shanahan saying they are ready to build a movement of Voters from both parties it is a vision that I share too as I spend the next seven months of my life getting him on each and every ballot in this country now Tom this independent ticket is formally qualified for the ballot in
just one state the state of Utah but allies say they have collected enough signatures in key Battleground States as well including Michigan Georgia Arizona and Nevada this ticket here they've got just a few more months to get those signatures but as polling suggests if in fact they get on those ballots they could be a formidable independent ticket perhaps maybe not to win the presidential race outright but to make a big difference in what would be a 3way matchup Tom it no doubt could have a hug
e impact on this race all right Von hiler from the RFK junr campaign Trail tonight when we come back we'll continue our special coverage from the scene of this Bridge tragedy and breaking news just in the search for those six construction workers suspended for the night the announcement just in and what that means for the recovery operation that's [Music] next we're back now with more of top story from Baltimore where we are cover cing that cargo ship crash that resulted in the catastrophic brid
ge collapse you see just behind me the Coast Guard saying tonight the search and rescue mission has been suspended for the evening for more on the challenges the search crews are facing right now and throughout this process I want to bring in um uh the Baltimore County Executive who joins us now John oleski uh thank you so much for joining us County Executive I know it's been a wild time for you um as you look over your shoulder and and you see this it's just too dark to search for those missing
construction workers correct yeah I mean we've had uh federal state and local resources to Bear we've deployed all the resources that the Coast Guard uh Maryland State Police uh local fire and police both in Baltimore City and Baltimore County has had uh we've been throwing everything at it and as these conditions are getting dark again uh it's just unsafe to have our boats and our divers out there doing any rescue activity we we've heard from the construction company they they they don't think
that their their workers are going to be found alive is that your understanding as well I mean we know it's been a long time uh we have taken the approach that if there's any sliver of hope we want to throw everything that we can at it which is why we put all of our resources uh towards this effort I'm sure we'll reh huddle again in the morning to determine whether this continues as a rescue uh Mission or not but you know certainly our hearts go out to all those impacted uh especially the famil
ies of those workers who are on that bridge when you look at this right here and I understand that the human loss is obviously something you don't even want to think about but when you look at at sort of the accident and the cleanup what what concerns you most about that process yeah I mean as you said first and foremost we have the families impacted at our at our our thoughts and our actions but we also know that we have to be acting quickly uh about opening up that shipping channel uh we're ta
lking about $2 million daily of economic activity happening here at the Port of Baltimore uh we know that this bridge has meant so much to this community in terms of uh connectivity to jobs and schools and and just you know getting to their everyday lives when you talk about traffic here and how this is going to affect how people get around um we were driving around today we had to go to the other side I know you have to find different routes how big of an impact is that going to be on your comm
unity we're still determining that we know actually a lot of our families are on spring break this week and so the traffic impacts have actually been minimized but you know we've had all of our agencies in the uh you know Activity Center together working coordinating uh we're going to have a better plan every day we're going to only you know continue to improve and try to make sure that we're making those adjustments uh to make sure our residents can get around uh but you know I I just want to m
ake sure that you know our res know that we're resilient we have all the resources from the federal state and local level uh the president himself has called I appreciate the Secretary of Transportation being here and uh you know we're all hands on deck Baltimore has had some highs and lows over the last decade I think that's fair uh how does this impact the community going forward uh I mean I think we're still in shock at this point and so uh you know as we sort of get through this first day an
d I was on scene uh very early my chief called me at 2:00 a.m. I think I was there by 3: um just seeing the incredible work of our First Responders uh I know know community members are are sort of connected to this bridge in a very personal ways it's very painful to to see and so I think we'll still be evaluating that in the days ahead uh and we're ready to you know to do what we have to do to get get back to where we were when you got that call I would think it was around 1:30 what did they exa
ctly tell you did they tell you the bridge is gone yeah we were told that there was a partial collapse uh and that there was a ship that had hit uh the Key Bridge and again like it just didn't feel real uh and when you saw it and even now it's hard to believe that this actually happened and so uh as I look at it you know the number of times we've uh crossed that bridge or uh you know been around it uh the fact that we had a Star Spangled Banner uh buoy placed by the Coast Guard every year to com
memorate uh Francis Scott Key's writing of the national anthem here in in Baltimore um it's it's still very surreal and I think we're all still uh you know very much coming to grips with what we experience today we we've literally just gotten some very sad news uh from the Coast Guard that it's now being considered a recovery operation I'm I'm to have to share that with you um you know you're put in a leadership position not not for situations like this but but you're going to have to lead now w
hen when you hear that that likely six lives have been lost here on this collapse what do you tell your community it's tragic um and you know as I was saying earlier it's the kinds of things that we try to break for um and why we throw all of our assets at at this work um but we have been continually providing uh support for the families who were uh impacted throughout the day today uh because we knew this was a possibility so uh my heart Grieves for them uh we will continue to support those fam
ilies uh just as we will continue to be there for the community in the days and weeks ahead as well Baltimore County Executive John oy we thank you for your time I'm I'm sorry to have to talk to you under these circumstances thanks for having me all right we're going to have much more on the Bridge tragedy in a few minutes but we're following some other headlines right now other breaking news and top stories Newsfeed we begin with a military helicopter crash in Washington state in a statement to
NBC News us arm officials confirming the Apache helicopter went down during a routine training exercise on a base about 9 mies Southwest of Tacoma the two pilots survived and were taken to the hospital no word yet on their condition this crash is still under investigation former president Trump hit with a partial gag order the judge presiding over the New York criminal hush money trial barring Trump from talking about Witnesses and Court staffers in the case that would include his former attorn
ey Michael Cohen or adult film star Stormy Daniels who are both Witnesses in this case we must remind you it does not include New York district attorney Alvin Bragg though the trial is set to begin on April 15th uh two of the world's largest credit card companies reaching a settlement over Merchant fees according to a press release visa and MasterCard have agreed to lower swipe fees that businesses pay when their cards are used lawyers for the company say the deal would eliminate about $30 billi
on in fees over 5 years the settlement stemming from antitrust lawsuits filed nearly two decades ago and an update in the case of Julie julan Assange the founder of the controversial organization Wikileaks a British Court ruling Assange cannot be extradited from the UK to the US that just can't happen at this moment right now the US provides assurances that Assange will receive a fair trial without facing the death penalty Assange is facing charges here in the US for publishing classified docume
nts a new hearing is set for late May okay we want to turn now to other news as well the investigation to music mogul sha Diddy comes tonight new details emerging about those massive by federal agents at Several of his properties and at the same time authorities arresting a man who's accused in a lawsuit of being Diddy's drug mu alleged drug meal NBC Steven Patterson has the very latest including the statement just in from Diddy's attorney tonight as a series of explosive sweeping Federal raids
at the lavish homes of sha Diddy hmes were broadcast to Millions the arrest of a known associate was underway during the raids Miami police arrested 25-year-old Brendan Paul at the opalak airport charging him with Co cane possession but so far no word if the arrest was connected to those raids stunning images of heavily armed federal agents storming the music Moguls properties in Miami and Los Angeles are tied to search warrants connected to an investigation into alleged sex trafficking but I th
ink it's important to know that the sdny and the Department of Justice generally does not go after high-profile celebrities unless they've got uh a ton of evidence law enforcement sources say agents seized cell phones from Combs while he was in in the Miami area during the raids before a scheduled trip to the Bahamas there are reports his private plane has been seen in Antiga it's unclear where he is now but in a statement to NBC News attorneys for comes said in part yesterday was a gross overus
e of military level Force as search warrants were executed at Mr coles's residence there is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated Mr Colmes was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities adding Mr comes is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name coms is facing civil lawsuits including this one filed last month by music producer Rodney Jones accusing comes
of forcing him to procure sex workers and pressuring him to engage in sex acts allegations coms has denied in that same lawsuit attorneys also claimed Paul the man arrested yesterday was comes' mule and was connected to alleged drug trafficking and sex trafficking operations Paul's attorney have not commented well of course we don't know if Diddy himself is the target although targeting two of his houses and suggesting more of his homes are going to be a Target certainly implies that they think
he may be involved Federal prosecutors have not charged combes but the investigation around him tonight is growing and late tonight multiple law enforcement sources tell NBC news that weapons were seized at both properties so Los Angeles and Miami during that rain Tom all right Steve Patterson for us tonight we continue top story live here in Baltimore where officials just announced an operation to find six construction workers after a bridge collapse is now a recovery Mission we'll speak to a d
iving and Salvage expert in just a few minutes about all of this stay with us all right we are back now with a disturbing story out of Chicago today a law firm representing more than 300 women women filing a lawsuit against local hospitals for allegedly protecting an OBGYN who was sexually abusing patients many of the women the lawsuit says sent to him because he was one of the few doctors in the area who spoke Spanish one of the alleged survivors telling her heroine story to our Maggie vesa and
a warning to our viewers the story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse that I'm like oh my God you know is there more more like me tonight in Chicago a legal Reckoning rocking former patients of a one-time trusted doctor turned convicted sexual abuser and taking aim at the hospitals who attorneys argue turned a blind eye as he for years abused hundreds of patients most of them Latina sent to him attorneys say because he spoke Spanish women reported they reported again and again and ag
ain attorneys addressing reporters today after filing this lawsuit on behalf of Jane Doe 300 one Anonymous woman among attorneys saying the complaint 300 plus who they say were abused by now former OBGYN Dr Fabio Ortega at Northshore University Health System and Swedish Covenant Hospital the suit the latest chapter in Ortega's legal Saga back in 2021 the now 77-year-old pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two patients he was sentenced to 3 years in prison this suit now claiming he targeted hundre
ds more dating as far back as 1989 many of his patients were Spanish speaking miners children pregnant immigrants or Medicare patients he knew that these patients would trust his white coat the lawsuit detailing allegations of the disturbing experiences of several patients alleging Ortega performed unnecessary pelvic exams asked patients intrusive questions about their sex life and in one case inserting his fingers into a patient's vagina comparing his fingers to the size of her husband's penis
the suit also describes how patients allegedly reported abuse to nursing assistants Family Physicians and even Chicago police but Ortega continued working NBC News reached out to Chicago PD we have not received a response billion dooll institutions like Swedish and Northshore have a duty to protect patients that look to them for care and treatment and instead they Place profits over patient safety the hospitals now owned by Endeavor Health tell NBC news we have enhanced and continue to improve a
nd evolve our processes and policies to ensure we have an environment that supports reporting of threatened or actual abuse adding our policies require we investigate all allegations of abuse that are reported to us what's that emotion like how does that make you feel to read where this case is going Angry Angry Angry Angry because they knew what was going on among the women quoted in the lawsuit a 48-year-old mother from Mexico who asked to remain anonymous explaining I have two daughters that
I haven't told them but I went through the suit describing how in 2018 an employee at NorthShore Hospital told her Ortega retired it continues Northshore did not share with her that Ortega had just lost his medical license for sexually abusing patients today attorneys say she's far from alone did the hospitals ever reach out to patients especially after he pleaded guilty to abusing two of them to let them know that this had happened and ask if they had been victimized they didn't and instead the
y contined to cover up and conceal NBC News asked Endeavor Health about the allegation that hospitals never alerted patients they didn't answer that question in the hospitals I feel like they don't care about us you know I Spanish or woman's Latinas you teach your kids to be careful when they go out but how can you like prevent this you know like tell them like be afraid of your doctor Maggie joins us now from Chicago Maggie the allegations in this lawsuit are they they're devastating these atto
rneys say they've got more than 300 alleged survivors but they're only filing on behalf of one of them why is that well simply put Tom I me we asked them that question and they just said more are coming they didn't want to say how many more they didn't want to say when they might come they also we asked why this wasn't being filed as a class action lawsuit with everybody kind of at once and the attorney told me it's because with class action suits everyone essentially gets the same payout they g
et the same damages and when it comes to sexual abuse every experience is different every impact is different therefore they want every plaintiff every alleged Survivor to be treated unique so it seems like they're going one by one and again they say they have more than 300 and Tom you and I both know these are attorneys who we remember from past high profile very public cases before in particular they represented victims of now disgraced now former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nasser so again th
ey've been in the public Spotlight before they've gone after and gotten big payouts before and it seems like in this case Tom they are only getting started and one of the more disturbing allegations of course that a doctor essentially and allegedly targeted women who didn't speak English uh just so disturbing all right Maggie vesa for us Maggie we appreciate your reporting when we come back the recovery Mission now underway here in Baltimore six construction workers now presumed dead after a car
go ship hit the Francis Scott Key bridge sending it plunging into a river up next we speak to a retired Navy Captain who did diving in Salvage for another National trategy tragedy what searching these Waters behind me is so challenging that's next we are back now with the latest from the scene of The Bridge tragedy here in Baltimore the Coast Guard now saying they are now entering the recovery operation for Six construction workers who were on the bridge when it collapsed for more on the challen
ges ahead for the recovery operation I want to bring in retired Navy Captain Bobby scoy she was the diving and Salvage officer for the 1996 tww flight 800 recovery in addition to other major underwater recovery missions Captain scol I I first want to start with the breaking news that happened while we were on the air um it was a search and rescue it is now search and Recovery essentially the Coast Guard is saying they do do not believe there are any more survivors that's right uh Thomas um the t
he time um since the tragedy happened and um under the conditions that we have the the cold water the um the time that the victims would have been in the water um has now led the Coast Guard to turn the this into a recovery operation but that doesn't mean that the divers are going to change their commitment to what they're doing um divers are um special First Responders they're going to do the exact same things that they've been doing all along they're going to go in and they're going to do ever
ything they can to recover those victims talk to me about diving in these conditions because even when the sun was out you look down at the Port of Baltimore these Waters and and it is so murky I mean I I bet you can't even see your hand under water no um these are some of the most hazardous conditions even though it's shallow water relatively speaking um for some of our other operations um uh the temperature is very hazardous um it's only about 45 47 degrees um how long can how long can someone
survive in this kind of water I know hypothermia will set in pretty fast right very fast you know we're talking a matter of hours um at the very most depending on what they were wearing and and they probably were dled up but still it's just going to be a matter of hours and um for the divers they're going to have thermal protection but that's still going to the temperature is going to affect them quickly and from what I um saw they're probably scuba divers they're in small boats um for the dive
rs so they're not going to be in the water that much because of the amount of air in their tanks um but the the visibility is poor the um debris that they're going through down there the Twisted Metal from the bridge structure um the concrete that's down there makes it hazardous and even dangerous for the divers going through the debris field are they searching with lights down there how can they see absolutely um they'll have um handheld uh lights they might even have some lights that are attac
hed to their um diving rigs or on their head um but but still the visibility um in the daytime as they get deeper is going to be poor with the visibility so they're only seeing um between a couple feet maybe um uh 5 or 10t at the most in front of them there's mud at the Bott botom of the river when the structure collapses you have uh container units that are inside the water you have parts of the bridge in the water is there a fear that that can move around or once it falls and it sinks it's pre
tty much lodged in the mud uh no there there is some um fear that the structure in the debris it it can move because um some of it at the very bottom might be stable but the rest of it might still be unstable and it's incredibly dangerous for the divers as well right because they they literally can't see what's around them as you mentioned the waters it is so cold and now there's a chance that that that a piece of debris could fall on top of them yes divers always have to be aware of that it can
um not only fall on top of them but it can foul some of their breathing apparatus um you know there's how long can these teams work how long that like a certain team goes in how long can they stay in the water um for uh scuba divers the duration of their tank depending on the depth of water they can stay down there you know an hour but um the temperature is going to affect that as well um and so some divers maybe an hour maybe less than that um depending on um how cold they get okay retired Cap
tain Navy Captain Bobby scolly who's dived in similar situations we appreciate your time thank you for being here on top story again if you've been watching our broadcast a bit of breaking news as we say goodbye the search and rescue operation now turning into a search and Recovery Mission here at the Port of Baltimore that's going to do it for us tonight here thank you so much for watching this special edition of top story I'm Tom yamas in Baltimore tonight stay right there there is much more n
ews on the way thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media
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