Mississippi bridge collapses in deadly accident at demolition site: Officials
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(SIMPSON COUNTY, Miss.) — A Mississippi bridge set to be demolished collapsed in a deadly accident on Wednesday, officials said.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation confirmed there were fatalities, though it did not specify how many people died.
“[We] extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost loved ones,” the Mississippi Department of Transportation said in a statement.
An inspector with the Mississippi Department of Transportation who was at the worksite when the bridge collapsed was unharmed, the department said.
The bridge, which spanned the Strong River in Simpson County on State Route 149, collapsed Wednesday afternoon, according to the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
The bridge had been closed to traffic since Sept. 18 and was in the process of being demolished as part of a bridge replacement project, the department said.
The replacement project had been given an estimate of 12 to 18 months to complete, according to previous statements from the department.
(NEW YORK) — Two now-retired chiefs from the New York City Fire Department were arrested early Monday morning following a yearlong corruption investigation, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Retired Chief Brian Cordasco was arrested at home on Staten Island. Retired Chief Anthony Saccavino was arrested at home in Manhattan, the sources said.
Saccavino and Cordasco “repeatedly abused their positions of trust as high-ranking officials in the New York City Fire Department” by soliciting and accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribe payments in exchange for providing preferential treatment to certain individuals and companies, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in Manhattan federal court.
The two men were chiefs with the FDNY Bureau of Fire Prevention, which regulates the installation of fire safety and suppression systems in commercial and residential buildings. For nearly two years, the indictment said, Saccavino and Cordasco misused this authority for their own financial gain.
The two allegedly accepted $190,000 in bribes in exchange for expediting inspections, according to the indictment.
“Every member of the FDNY takes a sworn oath to conduct themselves honestly and ethically. Anything less will not be tolerated,” Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker, who took over the post after the chiefs had already retired, said in a statement. “The Department will fully cooperate with any ongoing investigations. Keeping New Yorkers safe remains our top priority.”
The FBI had searched their homes and offices earlier this year. he FDNY placed the chiefs on modified duty at the time. The New York City Department of Investigation searched FDNY headquarters as well.
The alleged scheme appears to have been discovered as an offshoot of the investigation into whether Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign took illegal money from Turkey in exchange for expediting the inspection of the new Turkish consulate.
A spokesperson for Adams said there is “no indication of any direct connection to anyone at City Hall.”
“City Hall became aware of this operation when we were notified by FDNY this morning,” the spokesperson said. “The FDNY continues to cooperate with DOI, and there is no indication of any direct connection to anyone at City Hall.”
Cordasco publicly complained about a so-called “City Hall List” of building projects that should be prioritized by FDNY inspectors, according to the indictment.
Mohamed Bahi, who resigned Monday from his job in the Adams administration, was arrested Tuesday for obstructing the investigation into the mayor and his campaign.
Bahi is charged with witness tampering and destroying evidence.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Remotely operated vehicle image of the Titan submersible tail cone on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean presented by the U.S. Coast Guard during a marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Pelagic Research Services/U.S. Coast Guard)
(NEW YORK) — One of the last messages sent from the doomed Titan submersible during its June 2023 voyage to the Titanic wreckage was “all good here,” according to a presentation from a U.S. Coast Guard hearing on the deadly implosion.
The Marine Board of Investigation for the U.S. Coast Guard’s two-week hearing into the incident began on Monday, 15 months after the OceanGate vessel catastrophically imploded during its deep-sea voyage, killing all five people aboard.
An animation created by the Coast Guard during the Monday hearing showed the text communications between the Titan and the surface vessel, Polar Prince, as the submersible descended toward the ocean floor on June 18, 2023. The short text messages were the only means of communication between the Titan crew and the personnel on the Polar Prince as the vessel attempted to reach the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters below sea level.
At approximately 2,274 meters, the Titan sent the message, “All good here,” according to the animation.
The last communication from the submersible was sent at approximately 3,341 meters: “Dropped two wts,” meaning drop weights, according to the Coast Guard.
All communications and tracking from the submersible to Polar Prince were lost at 3,346 meters, according to the Coast Guard.
Debris from the Titan was found on the ocean floor four days later. All five crew members — including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush — were determined to have died in a catastrophic implosion.
The Coast Guard released a new image during the hearing Monday that shows Titan debris, including the tail cone, at the bottom of the ocean.
Tym Catterson, a former contractor for OceanGate, testified during Monday’s hearing that there were “no red flags” on the day of the incident. He said he believes the intention of shedding the two 35-pound weights was to slow the vessel down as it approached the ocean floor. He thought the weight was dropped a little early than is typical — not due to any emergency but to ensure a smooth landing, he said.
“Considering who was in the cab with Stockton at that particular time — there are two billionaires in there with him — I would absolutely guarantee that he’s trying to make sure that this just goes as absolutely perfect and spot-on as he can,” Catterson said.
He said when the tracking and communications were lost, the initial thought was that the transponder failed. When rescuers heard banging noises during their search for the vessel, he said they believed the vessel was drifting.
“This was all theories that were just flying around between people that were totally without sleep and very anxious,” he said. “It’s the worst thing that could be happening.”
Two witnesses say they wouldn’t go in the Titan
Some two dozen witnesses are scheduled to testify during the two-week hearing.
The hearing’s first witness — Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s former engineering director — testified that he was kept in the dark and didn’t know that OceanGate’s goal when he was initially hired was to go to the Titanic.
Asked whether he felt comfortable going down to the Titanic in the submersible, Nissen responded that Rush had asked him to be the pilot to run the Titanic missions, and he turned him down.
“I told him, I’m not getting in it,” Nissen said. “He asked me why, and I said, ‘Because the operations crew, I don’t trust them.'”
“He said, ‘Well, what if I’m mission director?'” Nissen continued. “I said, ‘You still have the same operations crew.’ But I didn’t trust Stockton either. Take a look at where we started and when I was hired, nothing that I got was the truth.”
Catterson also testified that he would not have felt comfortable going to the depths of the Titanic wreckage in the Titan, saying he had questions about the integrity of its carbon fiber and titanium construction.
“I don’t believe that the composites are the correct material for a pressure vessel that’s experiencing external compression,” he said. “I had my doubts.”
When asked if he ever voiced his concerns to OceanGate employees, he testified that he told Rush, Nissen and David Lochridge, the former OceanGate operations director — “pretty much anybody that would listen.”
Catterson said he had raised the issue about the integrity of the carbon fiber hull with Rush “no less than half a dozen” times. He said he thought the sub was “underbuilt” and that Rush responded to his concerns by saying, “I have several engineers working on this and they say otherwise.”
The company’s former finance director, Bonnie Carl, a former contractor for OceanGate, testified Monday that she was aware of a conversation between Lochridge and Renata Rojas, a mission specialist, when Lochridge told Rojas not to go on the Titan, warning that it was “unsafe.”
Titan not classified
It is common for submersibles to get classification, but both Catterson and Nissen testified that the Titan had not been classified. Catterson talked about recommending classification for it to Rush.
“The reason for the classification is basically that it’s proof of due diligence. It’s also primarily one of the ways that you can get insurance for the submersibles. That’s one of the very big things,” he said. “I had explained this to [Rush], and he, well, I guess that wasn’t as big of a worry for him as it would be for most people. I don’t know, I said my piece.”
According to a Coast Guard presentation during Monday’s hearing, the Titan was tested to 1.09 times its operating pressure — the industry standard is 1.25 times.
Issues with sub
The Coast Guard and witnesses detailed issues and concerns with the sub.
The vessel had 70 equipment issues in 2021 that needed correcting, and 48 more in 2022, according to the Coast Guard.
The Titan partially sank four weeks before the incident following a night of high seas and fog, according to the Coast Guard. Days before the implosion, passengers slammed against the vessel during resurfacing, the Coast Guard said.
Nissen testified that he believes the Titan was struck by lightning in April 2018.
“That is a difficult thing to prove, except I had to drag a lot of my engineering team down there to replace all the electronics in it. And I could find all the lightning traces. So it took high energy for sure,” he said.
He testified that he wouldn’t sign off on a dive to the Titanic in July 2019 due to a crack in the hull, and said he was subsequently fired.
Carl said she was concerned about some of the employees working on OceanGate submersibles.
“There were some young engineers — and by young, I mean late teens, early 20s — without any experience, we were aware of, wrenching on the sub, and without supervision right there on them,” she said. “And that made me nervous.”
Hearing to last two weeks
The hearing is scheduled to run through Sept. 27. Former OceanGate employees scheduled to testify later in the hearing include Lochridge; co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein; and Steven Ross, former scientific director, according to a schedule released by the Coast Guard.
The main purpose of the hearing is to uncover the facts related to the implosion and to make recommendations, according to Jason Neubauer, chair of the Marine Board of Investigation.
“The Marine Board’s investigation will determine as closely as possible the factors that contributed to the incident, so that proper recommendations for the prevention of similar casualties may be made,” Neubauer said at the start of Monday’s hearing.
The investigation will also examine whether there is any evidence of misconduct or criminal acts in connection with the incident, he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the implosion and will make its own determination as to the probable cause, according to Marcel Muise, an investigator with the agency’s Office of Marine Safety.
Attorneys with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton, which represents OceanGate, are also attending the hearing.
“There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this tragic incident, but we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent anything like this from happening again,” Jane Shvets with Debevoise & Plimpton said during opening remarks.
In addition to Rush, those killed in the implosion included French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.
The submersible company suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.
