Feds charge ship operator in Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse

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, false statements and obstructing an agency proceeding, according to a Justice Department news release. Technical superintendent Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, a national of India, was also indicted. It marks the first criminal charges in connection with the MV 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 in Tuesday's indictment "altered" the ship so that a "flushing pump" was used to supply diesel to two of its generators, rather than the vessel's "proper fuel supply pumps," the Justice Department's statement reads. The company and Nair were also charged with obstruction and making false statements during a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. Nair is accused of telling the NTSB that he didn't know the flushing pump was used to supply fuel. …