Off The Record

Reports Reveal That 6 People Are Presumed Dead After The Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapsed

Published on March 28, 2024

Miguel Luna, 49, and Maynar Suazo, 37, were working the graveyard shift on the Baltimore, Maryland, Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26. At about 1:30 a.m., a cargo ship hit one of the bridge’s support beams.

Six of the eight guys on the team were thrown into the Patapsco River when the bridge gave way. Two of them were saved.

His wife, who has three kids with him, cried, “We have a broken heart,” The two men who died were trying to fix a bridge. Keep reading to find out more about them.

Miguel Luna, who is 49 years old, was happy to be working on the famous Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland. He has shared many photos of his work on the bridge on social media over the past few years, happy for the chance to support his wife and three kids.

But since early March 26, Luna’s family is one of the six families hoping for a miracle.

Moon’s wife, Maria del Carmen Castellón, told Telemundo 44, “They only tell us that we have to wait, that for now they can’t give us information.”

He also says this about his wife: “[We feel] devastated, devastated because we have a broken heart, because we don’t know if they’ve already rescued them. We’re waiting to hear some news.”

Maynor Suazo

Yesica Suazo, Maynor’s mother, wrote a heartfelt Facebook post about her son less than a year ago.

“Today I want to thank God first and my family, especially Maynor Suazo,” she writes under a picture of her son graduating from college. “Today my son is a professional. the wait for this title was long as we faced many adversity, as first was the pandemic, hurricanes, floods, illness, human losses. but so far God has been good.”

Now, the sad mother is crying over the likely death of her son without a body to bury.

Suazo, 37, from Azacualpa, Santa Barbara, is the second worker who is thought to be dead.

The Honduran man, who was married and had two children, had lived in the US for 18 years. His brother Martin told local news that his brother moved here to “improve the quality of his life.”

Martin said he is going to the US to bring his brother’s body back to his home country.

In a separate interview with CNN, Martin stated that Suazo’s son, 18, and daughter, 5, are the ones who will miss him.

To honor the man, a family friend writes, “Maynor is a guy, with warmth and quality of people, entrepreneur with a vision and mission to serve our community.”

It says, “We wish with our hearts this alive, Our prayers to see you again and continue to enjoy your joy and enthusiasm.”

‘Heroes’

The steel-arched bridge, which opened in 1977 and is named after the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” had some holes that needed to be fixed.

According to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the 300-meter-long ship Dali seemed to hit a major concrete pier around 1:30 a.m. The pier is part of the foundation and sits on soil below the water.

The crash caused the bridge to fall apart, throwing the eight men into the cold, dark water below. There was a frantic search for them through “increasingly treacherous conditions” in “darkened, wreckage-strewn waters.”

“By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives last night,” Moore said, adding that the bridge was strong and up to code.

Six of the men are still lost, while two were saved.

A 26-year-old from San Luis, Petén, and a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula are among those who are lost. They don’t have names yet.

Search and cleanup work is still going on.

We are sorry for the deaths of these people and hope that knowing that they are heroes brings them some peace.