DOJ Unseals Indictment Over the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse, Citing the Dali's Flushing-Pump Fuel Supply
May 13, 2026 · The Justice Department · 0:29:12
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What happened
The Justice Department held a press conference on May 13, 2026 to announce the unsealing of an indictment arising from the March 26, 2024 allision of the container vessel Dali with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, according to the department’s recording. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland said the indictment charges Synergy Marine Private Limited, Synergy Maritime Private Limited and Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair with crimes including conspiracy, violations of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act, misconduct or neglect of ship officers resulting in death, and obstruction. Six people working on the bridge were killed, the bridge was destroyed, the Port of Baltimore did not fully reopen until June 2024, and Maryland does not expect the replacement bridge to be completed until 2030, as the U.S. Attorney stated the timeline.
Prosecutors alleged the Dali lost power twice in four minutes before striking the bridge. The first blackout was likely caused by a loose wire in a high-voltage switchboard, but the ship’s critical systems had redundancies and automatic restart capability and power quickly returned. The second blackout, they alleged, occurred because the operators relied on a flushing pump to supply fuel to two generators; the flushing pump did not restart automatically, the running generators were starved of fuel, and the ship could not recover power in time to pass safely under the bridge. The indictment alleges using the non-redundant flushing pump as a continuous fuel supply was a hazardous condition under Coast Guard regulations and a violation of international law, that Synergy used it that way on at least three vessels from 2020, and that employees including Nair knew of the practice and concealed it, including by allegedly lying to the National Transportation Safety Board and fabricating safety inspections and certifications later provided to the NTSB and a federal grand jury, as alleged in the indictment.
Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, said the collision discharged oil and debris into the Patapsco River and caused billions of dollars in damage, and that enforcing safe-operation laws in the nation’s ports is essential, as he presented the division’s role. Both officials stressed that an indictment is only an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial.
Why it matters
The indictment converts the Key Bridge disaster from a civil damages case into a criminal prosecution of the vessel’s operators, and its flushing-pump theory — a known, concealed, non-redundant fuel setup — will be the factual center of the trial.
Sources: The Justice Department, “DOJ Makes Significant Announcement Regarding Investigation of Francis Scott Key Bridge Incident”, 2026-05-13 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-05-13). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.