By The Smartencyclopedia Staff & Agencies

The black box from the ship that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, USA, has been recovered. Audio recordings revealed a distress call moments before authorities suspended traffic in both directions on the bridge.

According to Sky News, the cargo ship issued a distress call to alert authorities that it had lost power moments before colliding with the Baltimore bridge. Following the call, authorities swiftly halted traffic in both directions on the bridge.

“Stop all traffic on the bridge. A ship is approaching that has just lost control. Until we get it under control, we have to stop all traffic,” an officer instructed, also requesting verification that “nobody [was] on the bridge.”

In the audio, the officer received the response that it was already too late. Seconds later, “the entire bridge collapsed. The whole bridge collapsed,” was heard.

The accident is now under investigation, with authorities determining the cause of the tragedy. Recall that six people were reported missing and have already been declared dead by the executive vice president of Brawner Builders. All crew members aboard the ship have been found, with no reports of injuries.

The collision between the ship and the bridge occurred on Tuesday at 01:30 EDT (05:30 Lisbon time), causing the collapse of the infrastructure.