Third body recovered from Baltimore bridge wreckage as Biden inspects ‘mangled mess’

Divers find remains of 38-year-old construction worker more than a week after disaster

A third body has been recovered from the wreckage of the Baltimore bridge as Joe Biden inspected the “mangled mess” from the air.
Divers located the body of Maynor Suazo Sandoval, a 38-year-old father of two, on Friday, more than a week after a cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
He was part of a team of construction workers repairing potholes on the bridge. Two of the men were later rescued from the Patapsco River while three workers are still missing.
Carlos Alexis Suazo Sandoval, the brother of Maynor Suazo Sandoval, was relieved that his body had been recovered so that his family could give him a proper goodbye.
“That was the #1 goal,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message in Spanish, according to The Washington Post. “Thank God.”
The news came as Joe Biden made his first visit to Baltimore, Maryland since the bridge collapsed, bringing one of the US’s largest container ports to a standstill.
The US President had a close-up view of the devastation on Marine One as it circled the warped steel girders and debris clogging up the channel. Cranes, ships and diving crews are working to reopen the port after the federal government provided an initial $60 million in emergency funding.
In a speech given from the shoreline overlooking the collapsed bridge, Mr Biden pledged to move “heaven and earth” to rebuild it. “I’m here to say your nation has your back and I mean it,” he added.
“From the air I saw the bridge that has been ripped apart, but here on the ground I see a community that’s pulled together.”
Mr Biden received a briefing from the US coast guard and local officials, and met for more than an hour with the families of those who had been killed.
Describing the victims, all of whom had emigrated from Latin American countries, as “hard-working, strong, and selfless”, Mr Biden said: “To all the families and loved ones who are grieving, I’ve come here to grieve with you. We all are.”
The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, from Guatemala, were recovered from the Patapsco River the day after the collapse.
“This evening the Unified Command announced that divers were able to bring Maynor Suazo Sandoval, one of the remaining missing workers, home to his family,” Brandon M. Scott, Baltimore’s mayor, said on Friday.
“While I take solace in knowing this brings us one step closer to closure, my heart continues to be with all the families still waiting anxiously for their loved ones.”
A US army colonel tasked with clearing the wreckage described the scene as a “mangled mess”, telling the BBC: “It’s hard to explain steel that is cantilevered, bent and smashed with so much force.”