hospital stay he eventually talked about it what is to think about the situation and long-term impacts of that? guest: my perspective was that it was important to have that level of transparency to say this is where i was on it and i felt it became a political football in the use or for their own political benefit which was unfortunate. every reaction is a call for impeachment and that does no good for our country and both sides do it to each other which is why we are trying to build a ballast, a group that says take a pause and turned the temperature down let's announcer: we are going to leave live coverage on c-span.om ntsb chair homendy: normally our investigator in charge, his name

is marcel muise. he's our investigator in charge for this investigation. but just getting on seen today, it is very early. i have asked that he remain at the command post to continue what he is doing so that i can briefe doing so far. also with me is one of our newest board members, this is alvin brown. this is his training launch. the ntsb arrived on scene at 6:00 a.m. to investigate an accident involving a singapore registered vessel with the name dali. which made contact with the francis scott key bridge in

baltimore, maryland at around 1:30 a.m. this morning. the vessel is 985 feet long, it's a 95,000 gross ton container ship. i have seen informationut crew members on board. we still need to verify the numbers of crude on board -- of cruise on board and their status. c our memorandum of understanding with the coast guard, the ntsb is leading this investigation. guard will support this investigation. our memorandum of understanding, for an accident involves another mode of transportation and other factors. the ntsb will lead that investigation. now, i want to thank the u.s. coast guard. we have a very cooperative

onship with the u.s. coast guard. i particularly want to thank deputy commandant for operations, vice admiral. i want to thank admiral gill , and captain o'connell, the sector commander. before i go on, on behalf of the ntsb, i want to extend our deepest sympathies to those who have been affected by this significant event. i mentioned, does many significant transportation events, not just aviation. we do accidents and incidents in marine safety as well, and of course with bridges and other highway infrastructure. for this, there were many that

were affected by this collapse, and our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and others who have been affected. i'm going to get questions on fatalities and injuries, which i am not going to answer. that is not something at the ntsb answers. i will refer you to local authorities on all of that information. what i can tell you is-rescue il underway. so we are very hopeful and again , our thoughts are with the families and their loved ones. again, we got here at 6:00 a.m., and we are standing back to allow the coast guard and search-and-rescue to continue their search-and-rescue operation. while we gather information from the command post. there is a lot of information that we can begin to collect. we have a team of 24 on scene,

including member brown and me. the team of experts include experts in nautical operations. and what they are going to look at and begin to collect is information on vessel operations, safety history, safety record, they will look at the owner, they will look at the operations today. they will also look at company policy, any sort of safety management systems or safety management program will be looked at by them. and our human performance team as well. we have a human performance expert here. we have an engineering team. we have survival factors, and then we have a team here that is getting the recorders. we also have a highway safety team, our team out of the office

of highway safety including structural engineers, bridge experts who will be here and are continuing to come in. we have a few here and one or two others are coming in in the next few hours. we also had our family assistance team on-site. and our family assistance team works with those that were affected by a particular event. friends, and other loved ones. and they will help them get in touch with the resources they need while also providing them with the information that they need as we move forward with our investigation. this is a team effort. there are a lot of entities right now in the command post, focused on search-and-rescue, as they should be. but i do want to, in particular, thank the coast guard, the

maryland transportation authority police, the federal bureau of investigations, the baltimore fire and rescue, and the maryland state police. i also know there are others on scene i am sure i have missed, for engineers is here, a great deal of expertise, and all focused on at is very important, which is people first. i have been in contact with my counterpart inindirector chong t safety board. e maintains relationships with our counterparts in other countries often, and stay in close communication. so the director and i have been in communication many times before on safety. he is sending some personnel

here tomorrow. also, personnel will be arriving from the maritime and port authority ofwho has the focus of being the regulator in singapore. now, it's a -- there's not a lot of information i can share at this time. there is a lot of information that seems to the ntsb does not speculate. we provide facts. so there is not a lot we can share right now because the focus has been on the people. however, if you know me, i like to provide information as we can when we are able to verify those facts and be open about that. transparency is one of our mandates, one of our core values. so please, monitor ntsbnd x, where we will post when we are having another media briefing. we do have an organizational

meeting tonight at 5:00, which i mentioned, to determine where we there's a lot of information we need to gather between now and then in the days and weeks that follow. with that, i am going to take questions. i will call on you. please state your name a ywe win go over here. reporter: nbc news. you spoke of one of the teams within this ntsb structure looking for specifically the recorders on board the ship. can you speak to what type of recorders may be on board the ship, and what do you hope the information they would provide? chair homendy: at this time, i will have more information about the recorders tomorrow. we chose not to board the vessel

today to allow some time for the search and recovery, which we did not want to interfere with. that is the first and foremost. we do have some information, but we need to verify that information first before we provide that information, before i verify it. we will have that information tomorrow, or maybe later tonight if you want to check with me. reporter: abc news. how long will the search go on for today? chair homendy: it is a question on how long the search will go on today. ntsb is not in charge of the search-and-rescue operation. that is the u.s. coast guard. so i would refer you to the coast guard for that■g information. reporter: cbs news. [inaudible] what can you tell us about the timeline?

how much time elapsed between the pilot notifying authorities? chair homendy: there is a question on the timeline. again, i information you are looking for. the information we get, which often happens in a large event where there are a lot of entities, is there is conflicting information. the ntsb focuses on the facts. so we will figure that out and be able to provide that information in the coming days. today is far too early for that. nothing on the timeline so far. reporter: how critical will the recorder be? chair homendy: how critical will voyage data recorder be to investigating this? it is a critical piece of our investigation, which is why we have a recorder team here. reporter: have you been able to figure out why the ship did not immediately drop anchor when the power went out and they were on course? chair homendy: the question is on dropping anchor, and whether

they did or did not and the timing on that. again, that will be part of our investigation and part of our timeline. lji can provide you more information on that in the coming days, but not today. reporter: just wanted to check, do you havan their nationality? chair homendy: the question is who was on board the vessel, and nationalities. again, i've heard conflicting information on that as well. we will have to get back to you on that. reporter:o to believe there were major deficiencies with the vessel? what are you learning from previous inspections? chair homendy: the question is, were there any efficiencies -- deficiencies on the vessel before it sailed, and will we be looking at any safety information. that is part of our

investigation where relook in-depth at safety information. anything that may have occurred prior to this. any sort of safety history with respect to the vessel. any sort of maintenance that was done to a vessel or a component on the ship. we will look at all of that but it is much too early for all of that. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy: the question is who are we worki with from the private sector folks. certainly we are working with the owner operators, which are two different entities for this vessel. we will be working with the pilot association. and we will have a number of federal, state, and local partners as party to the investigation. we are going to designate those tonight at the organizational

briefing and i will have more information on that tomorrow. reporter: given obviously the search-and-rescue effort is the main focus right now handled are the u.s. coast guard, but the key bridge being such a major thoroughfare for the city and our commerce, the entire country, is there any sense of urgency to get this cleaned up faster, or what exactly is the priority beyond search-and-rescue? chair homendy: there is a question about what is the priority beyond the search-and-rescue. we don't -- certainly investigations are a priority. certainly environmental considerations are a priority. and so is traffic and getting cargo vessels in and out of the port of baltimore. it is no the ntsb's priority. we have a number of organizations including the department of transportation, maryland department of

transportation, the governor, who is doing a lot of work on that. but right now it is about people. it is about families. and addressing the needs of those that were impacted, that is the focus. i don't think anybody in that room right now at the command post is thinking about what are the next steps to get things cleaned up. they are working to figure out who was impacted, if anyone was impacted, and how do we address that. because that is and should be the priority always. yoe bit about the families and talked a little bit about the rescue effort taking place. have we confirmed that there were any more t■han just workere on the bridge itself? were there any more possible other cars, other drivers on the bridge? chair homendy:on, have we been m information on the number of cars on the bridge, the number there are a lot of numbers that

we heard back and forth. we need to verify that. is doing that now. that is not through the ntsb, that is through the local authorities, maryland state transportation authority, as well as their federal partners through the coast guard, to be able to verify that information. so as of right now there could be other victims than just a 60 were searching for? -- the six you are searchingy: g by a number. they are just looking and searching. that is what is important. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy: the structure of the bridge, there are some questions about the structure of the bridge, the protective

structure around the bridge to make sure there is not a collapse. we are aware of what a structure should have. part of our investigation will be how was this bridge constructed. it will look at the structure itself, should there be any sort of safety improvements. all of that will be part of our investigation. we go very broad in our investigation. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy: the question is, has the bridge ever been flagged for any sort of safety decisions or security deficiency. that is information that will take time to dig through. i will just point to our recent investigation ofhe fern hollow bridge collapse which took almost two years to get

information on inspections, and what was and was not done after those inspections, and whether there were or were not records maintained. that is specific to fern hollow bridge, but it's a very cumbersome process, it is a very meticulous process where they have to dig through a lot of information. so it will not be something that we will be able verify whilegk on scene. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy: is on the reported power failure. we have heard the reports. we've been made aware of those same reports about there being a power outage. i have also seen statements, media releases om singapore as well. it's something that we take in, it's something that we have to

what was part of the contributing cause here. so, too early to tell. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy:no whether the construction workers on the bridge were employed by brauner builder's incorporated. e information we have. of course sometimes they use subcontractors, so we n't have any information yet on subcontractors, but we do have information on the company itself. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy: is there any information on anybody that is unaccounted for, and whether they were able to verify with the company.

that is something that the federal officials, the fbi, along with the coast guard will verify, not the ntsb. reporter: [indiscernible] chair homendy: the question is about -- i don't have information on the state inspector at this point. we are very focused on getting our investigative groups up and running. again, let the search-and-rescue team do what they need to do to focus on the people, ahe gatherm the owner of the ship, of the veagain, that was my last question. for further information, and i knowt here.

and really, the focus is on -- that is everyone's main focus right now. the rest can wait. so please monitor ntsb.gov and our twitter feed for the next briefing. thank you. reporter:■c ma'am will secretaryme buttigieg becoming down here? what's with voters heading to the polls in november today researchers discuss u.s. public opinion of the u.s./ukraine war hosted by the carnegie endowment for international peace watch live coverage at 3:30 eastern on c-span, c-span now our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. tly made history by becoming virginia's first

black speaker of the house of delegates. tonight on q&a, a conversation with speaker scott talking about hurdles he has overcame including spending almost eight years in prison. >> it's breathtaking. it's amazing. i think about all of the people that came before me that allowed me to be in this place. i think about the pain and trauma that those enslaved people had during enemy where i am, the trauma and pain that birthed the opportunity that i have now to serve as speaker. i do not take that opportunity for granted. i am very proud and i feel a see responsibility and obligation to make sure i live up to the dream of the people that came before me. >> watch the full q&a interview with don scott 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now our free mobile video app or online at