Baltimore bridge collapse: Crane tied to CIA Chilly Conflict mission arrives for cleanup

Harris Marley
Harris Marley

World Courant

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A strong floating crane that performed a task in what the CIA says was one of many “best intelligence coups of the Chilly Conflict” has arrived on the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse website in Baltimore to start out eradicating particles. 

The Chesapeake 1000, which Unified Command tells Fox Information Digital can “carry as much as 1,000 tons,” arrived late final evening on the wreckage website within the Patapsco River, the place the stays of 4 building staff are nonetheless lacking following Tuesday’s collapse. 

The crane initially was constructed because the Solar 800 in 1972 to assist assemble the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a deep-sea vessel utilized by the CIA in a secret mission known as “Undertaking AZORIAN” to get better a Soviet nuclear submarine that sank within the Pacific Ocean in the course of the Chilly Conflict, in keeping with the Engineering Information-Document. 

It later had its capability elevated from 800 to 1,000 tons and was purchased by New Jersey-based Donjon Marine Co. Inc. in 1993, which confirmed the small print of the report back to Fox Information Digital on Friday. 

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US ARMY VETERAN SPECULATES ON WHAT WENT WRONG BEFORE BALTIMORE BRIDGE COLLAPSE 

The Chesapeake 1000 floating crane in Baltimore, Maryland, on Friday, March 29. (Griff Jenkins/Fox Information)

Donjon Marine Co. Inc. says on its web site that the floating crane barge is almost 200 toes lengthy and has a increase of 231 toes. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore described it Thursday because the “the most important crane within the Japanese seaboard.” 

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The cargo ship Dali struck a pillar of the bridge on Tuesday, inflicting it to break down and killing six. 

On Thursday, the Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command – which is made up of the Coast Guard, Military Corps of Engineers, Maryland State Police and different businesses – stated “on-scene crews proceed to evaluate and monitor for spilled oils and dangerous substances to forestall additional discharge or launch into the marine surroundings.” 

“First responders have noticed a sheen across the vessel. There are 56 whole containers loaded on the vessel that contained hazardous supplies,” it added in a press release. “Fourteen had been impacted. The 14 that had been impacted had been assessed by an industrial hygienist for potential hazards.” 

FUNDING BILL TO REPLACE BALTIMORE KEY BRIDGE COULD TAKE SHAPE IN ‘MATTER OF WEEKS,’ TOP HOUSE REPUBLICAN SAYS 

On this picture taken from video launched by the Nationwide Transportation and Security Board, the cargo ship Dali is caught underneath a part of the construction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (NTSB/AP)

The CIA says Undertaking AZORIAN got here to be after Okay-129, a “Soviet Golf II-class submarine carrying three SS-N-4 nuclear-armed ballistic missiles,” sank in 1968 about 1,800 miles northwest of Hawaii. 

The ship utilized in that mission, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, was “ostensibly a industrial deep-sea mining vessel ostensibly constructed and owned by billionaire Howard Hughes, who offered the believable cowl story that his ship was conducting marine analysis at excessive ocean depths and mining manganese nodules mendacity on the ocean backside,” in keeping with the CIA. 

The Explorer ultimately pulled up part of the submarine in 1974 that included the our bodies of six Soviets, however one other half broke off about midway to the floor, the CIA says. A second mission to get better that misplaced portion was scuttled after particulars of this system had been uncovered by the media a yr later. 

The Glomar Explorer ship is seen anchored within the U.S. Navy’s Nationwide Protection Reserve Fleet in Suisan Bay, California on this U.S. Navy handout file photograph taken on Could 15, 1977. The ship was constructed by the CIA for a secret Chilly Conflict mission in 1974 to lift a sunken Soviet sub. Christened the Hughes Glomar Explorer, after billionaire Howard Hughes was introduced in on the CIA’s deception, the 619-foot vessel ultimately turned a part of the fleet of ships utilized by Swiss firm Transocean to drill for oil.  (Reuters/US Navy/Archives Department, Naval Historical past and Heritage Command, Washington)

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“Though Undertaking AZORIAN failed to fulfill its full intelligence targets, CIA thought of the operation to be one of many best intelligence coups of the Chilly Conflict,” it stated. 

Baltimore bridge collapse: Crane tied to CIA Chilly Conflict mission arrives for cleanup

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