After finding the 30-ton steel hatch cover that blew off a coal carrier this week amid an explosion aboard the ship, dive teams are working to find out how to remove it.
The hatch was located earlier this week after the Army Corps of Engineers deployed a sonar-equipped survey vessel at the explosion site near the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge to find debris in Fort McHenry Channel, the main path for cargo to flow in and out of the Port of Baltimore.
Although cargo ships have been able to move in and out of the Port of Baltimore since Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard has some restrictions in place as crews salvage the hatch and investigate what happened on the ship. The Coast Guard lifted a temporary safety zone near the hatch cover south of Fort Carroll on Thursday afternoon, after activating it Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Boaters can now travel freely in the area, but officials said the restriction will return if dive or salvage work resumes.
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The Coast Guard is still restricting the maximum navigational draft -- referring to how much of a ship is underwater -- of vessels passing through that radius because of the blown-off hatch, which is 98 feet long and 24 feet wide.
The hatch blew off the W-Sapphire, a bulk carrier that called in a mayday for an explosion Monday evening, about 30 minutes after leaving the coal pier in Curtis Bay.
No injuries were reported. The ship explosion near the fallen Key Bridge closed down maritime traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore for about 20 hours, and the 751-foot vessel has been anchored near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge since Monday night.
The Coast Guard said Wednesday that the Liberian-flagged ship, which was fully loaded with coal before the explosion in a cargo hold, is in stable condition.
Investigators from the Coast Guard and various agencies are expected to board the ship to figure out how the explosion happened. After that, the Coast Guard will work on a plan to clear the carrier from the port, the agency said Wednesday.
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