2026年5月12日 美国东部时间上午11:25 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：乔·沃尔什、乔·沃尔什、妮可·斯甘加、莎拉·N·林奇
两年多前，一艘集装箱船失去动力并撞入巴尔的摩弗朗西斯·斯科特·基大桥，造成六人死亡、大桥坍塌，该船的运营商如今面临联邦指控。
周二上午公开的起诉书指控新加坡和印度运营的Synergy Marine集团合谋欺诈美国、未向美国海岸警卫队报告已知危险状况、船舶船员失职导致死亡、作出虚假陈述以及阻碍政府机构调查。岸上技术主管拉达克里希南·卡尔蒂克·奈尔——印度籍公民——也一同被起诉。
“基大桥坍塌永远改变了马里兰州，”联邦调查局巴尔的摩分局特别探员主管吉米·保罗在宣布指控的新闻发布会上表示。
“这场坍塌本不应发生，”他补充道，“负责船舶运营的人员为了省事不惜牺牲安全。”
这起起诉是针对“达利号”货轮的首批刑事指控。2024年3月26日清晨，这艘货轮从巴尔的摩港出海时撞入基大桥，造成六名公路施工工人死亡。替换大桥的工程预计耗资数十亿美元，将耗时至本世纪末。
联邦检察官指控被告方违规使用“冲洗泵”为“达利号”的两台发电机供应柴油，而非使用具备冗余设计且可自动重启的标准燃油供应泵。此次碰撞前的两次断电中，第二次断电便被归咎于该泵故障。
马里兰州联邦检察官凯利·海斯表示：“起诉书称，如果‘达利号’使用了正确的燃油供应泵，船舶本可以及时恢复动力，安全通过基大桥下方水域。”
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“但由于该船使用了不具备冗余设计的冲洗泵，船舶未能及时恢复动力，”她在新闻发布会上说道。
她补充道，至少自2020年以来，该船运营商就知晓违规使用冲洗泵及其带来的风险。事故发生后，部分员工还试图隐瞒这一做法。
海斯表示，作为两家被起诉企业的“达利号”技术主管，奈尔事后“ falsely told the National Transportation Safety Board that he was unaware the Dali was using the flushing pump”。该公司和奈尔被指控在国家运输安全委员会的调查中妨碍公务并作出虚假陈述。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻目前正联系Synergy集团和奈尔征求置评。
起诉书和国家运输安全委员会的报告将事故归咎于船上两次断电。国家运输安全委员会表示，第一次断电是由于船舶配电板上的一根松动电线脱落，导致为发动机供应冷却水的泵停止运转，“达利号”的主发动机因此停机，船舶转向系统也短暂失效。
船员很快恢复了电力，但“达利号”随后遭遇第二次停电，国家运输安全委员会将部分原因归咎于起诉书中提及的冲洗泵。国家运输安全委员会指出，与专为发电机供应柴油的泵不同，原本用于清洁管道以进行维护的冲洗泵不具备冗余设计，且无法在断电后自动重启。报告称使用该泵“不符合规范”。
国家运输安全委员会在去年11月发布的报告中写道，Synergy集团的管理人员“不知道‘达利号’将冲洗泵当作作业泵使用”。报告援引一名不愿具名的管理人员的话称，将冲洗泵用作发电机燃料来源是不可接受的。
周二的检察官进一步指控该船运营商隐瞒了该泵的使用情况，包括“在审计、工程日志和船员记录等船舶文件中省略或删除有关冲洗泵的任何提及”。奈尔还被指控 falsely telling the NTSB that he didn’t know the flushing pump was used to supply fuel。
起诉书指控，“达利号”至少自2020年起便开始使用冲洗泵供应燃料，且该泵曾在事故前一天导致另一起断电事故。检察官称，Synergy集团运营的另一艘货轮“马士基萨尔托罗号”也曾在2022年12月因使用冲洗泵遭遇断电事故。
除周二的刑事指控外，“达利号”的运营商和船东——分别为Synergy集团和格雷斯海洋私人有限公司——还面临来自联邦政府、马里兰州、巴尔的摩市县、受害者家属、货主以及其他多方提出的一系列复杂民事诉讼，各方均指控其存在过失。
Synergy集团和格雷斯海洋公司已于2024年与司法部达成超过1亿美元的和解协议，并于上月与马里兰州达成和解。其他诉讼预计将于下月开庭审理，船东和运营商否认存在过失，并辩称其赔偿责任仅限于船舶及其所载货物的价值。
Federal prosecutors charge operator of ship in Baltimore’s Key Bridge collapse
May 12, 2026 11:25 AM EDT / CBS News
By Joe Walsh, Joe Walsh, Nicole Sganga, Sarah N. Lynch
The operator of the container ship that lost power and slammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge more than two years ago, killing six people and causing the bridge to collapse, is facing federal charges.
An indictment unsealed Tuesday morning charges Synergy Marine’s Singapore- and India-based operations with conspiracy to defraud the United States, failing to inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition, misconduct or neglect by ship officers causing death, false statements and obstructing an agency proceeding. Shore-based technical superintendent Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, a national of India, was also indicted.
“The Key Bridge collapse forever changed Maryland,” Jimmy Paul, the special agent in charge for the FBI Baltimore Field Office, said at a press conference announcing the charges.
“The collapse should never have happened,” he said, adding that “those who were responsible for the ship’s operation deliberately cut corners at the expense of safety.”
The indictment marks the first criminal charges in connection with the M/V Dali, which crashed into the Key Bridge while heading out to sea from the Port of Baltimore early in the morning of March 26, 2024. Six highway construction workers died. A project to replace the bridge is expected to cost billions of dollars and take until the end of the decade.
Federal prosecutors allege the defendants improperly used a “flushing pump” to supply diesel to two of the Dali’s generators, rather than normal fuel supply pumps that have redundancies and can automatically restart. That pump’s failure has been blamed for the second of two power outages in the moments leading up to the collision.
Kelly Hayes, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, said that “the indictment alleges that if the Dali had been using the proper fuel supply pumps, then the vessel would have regained power in time to safely navigate under the Key Bridge.”
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“But because the ship was using the flushing pumps, which did not have redundancies, the ship did not regain power in time,” she said at the press conference.
She added that since at least 2020, operators of the vessel knew about the improper use of the flushing pump and the risks it presented. After the disaster, she said some of the employees sought to hide its use.
Nair, who worked as the Technical Superintendent for the Dali at the two indicted corporate entities, later “falsely told the National Transportation Safety Board that he was unaware the Dali was using the flushing pump,” Hayes said. The company and Nair were charged with obstruction and making false statements during the NTSB’s investigation.
CBS News is reaching out to Synergy and Nair for comment.
The indictment and an NTSB report blame the crash on two onboard power outages. The first outage was caused by a loose wire in the ship’s switchboard that became disconnected, causing the Dali’s main engine to shut down because the pumps that supplied water to cool the engine turned off, the NTSB said. The ship’s steering system was also briefly offline.
The crew restored power quickly, but the Dali then faced a second blackout that the NTSB blamed in part on the flushing pump referenced in the indictment. Unlike a pump that’s designed specifically to supply diesel to a generator, the NTSB said the flushing pump, which was designed to clear fuel out of piping for maintenance, didn’t have redundancies and couldn’t restart automatically after an outage. The report called the use of that pump “inappropriate.”
The NTSB wrote at the time of its report, which was released last November, that managers for Synergy “were unaware that the flushing pump on the Dali was being used as a service pump.” It quoted an unnamed manager who said it would not be acceptable to use the flushing pump as the generators’ fuel source.
Prosecutors on Tuesday alleged that the ship’s operators concealed the use of the pump, including by “omitting and removing any mention of the flushing pump in ship documents” like audits, engineering logs and crew notes. Nair is also accused of falsely telling the NTSB that he didn’t know the flushing pump was used to supply fuel.
The indictment alleges that the Dali began using the flushing pump to supply fuel at least as early as 2020, and the pump was linked to another blackout the day before the collision. Another ship operated by Synergy — the M/V Maersk Saltoro — also faced a blackout in December 2022 due to its use of a flushing pump, prosecutors say.
Beyond Tuesday’s criminal charges, the Dali’s operator and owner — Synergy and Grace Ocean Private Limited, respectively — have faced a complicated web of civil claims from the federal government, the state of Maryland, the city and county of Baltimore, the families of the victims, the owners of cargo and a range of other parties who have alleged negligence.
Synergy and Grace Ocean settled with the Justice Department for more than $100 million in 2024, and they struck a settlement with the state of Maryland last month. Other claims are expected to go to trial next month, with the owner and operator denying negligence and arguing that their liability is limited to the value of the ship and its contents.
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