FACT CHECK: Was The Captain Of The Container Ship That Hit Francis Scott Key Bridge Ukrainian?
A post shared on social media purports the caption of the ship that hit the Francis Scott Key bridge was Ukrainian.
You won’t believe who is the captain of the ship that collapsed the bridge in Baltimore.
The captain of the container ship Dali, who demolished the bridge today. Francis Scott, is a Ukrainian.https://t.co/EdFzqjlp90 pic.twitter.com/zSmtTrIYQ2— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) March 26, 2024
Verdict: False
The claim is inaccurate. The crew was all Indian and two Americans were on board.
Fact Check:
Divers recovered the bodies of two of the six workers who were lost when Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed, The Associated Press reported. The victims have been identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera and were part of a crew attending to minor maintenance on the bridge.
A post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, alleges that the Captain of the Dali was a Ukrainian. The image shows an image of the alleged man and a description of their position.
The caption reads, “You won’t believe who is the captain of the ship that collapsed the bridge in Baltimore.”
The claim is inaccurate. Synergy Maritime Group confirmed the container ship Dali was a Singaporean flag vessel with an all Indian crew at the time of the incident, according to The Independent. The crew did sound their mayday alarm before the collision. Furthermore, other than the all Indian crew, the two port pilots on board were both Baltimore locals, The Straits Times reported.
BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh reported that the Dali did have a Ukrainian Captain from March to July 2016. However, there were no Ukrainian crew members on board during the recent incident.
Synergy Maritime Group responded to Check Your Fact request for clarification on the identity of the Captain. They referred us to their recent press release for the latest information. (RELATED: Does This Video Show Emmanuel Macron Dancing In A Wig?)
This is not the first time misinformation has been shared online. Check Your Fact debunked a claim that a video shows Barack Obama saying U.S. trained ISIS.
