USA: Crew trapped on Baltimore ship near Francis Scott Key Bridge, seven weeks after bridge collapse

CBC News has the story.

Engineers in Baltimore used explosives to clear the remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, bringing them one step closer to reopening a critical shipping channel. Andrew Chang explains what made the operation so delicate, why the ship and its crew have remained in place for weeks and what challenges still lie ahead.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-69011124

As a controlled explosion rocked the Dali on Monday, nearly two dozen sailors remained on board, below deck in the massive ship's hull.

The simultaneous blasts sent pieces of Baltimore's once iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge into the dark waters of Maryland's Patapsco River, seven weeks after its collapse left six people on the bridge dead and the Dali marooned.

Authorities - and the crew - hope that the demolition will mark the beginning of the end of a long process that has left the 21 men on board trapped and cut off from the world, thousands of miles from their homes.

But for now, it remains unclear when they will be able to return 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.