On March 26, 2024 a container ship crashed into the Baltimore Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. The tragic accident caused a large portion of the bridge to fall into the Patapsco River, taking the lives of six beloved construction workers. The accident took place in early hours of the morning.
Photo used from the CNN article “Absolutely a wake-up call’: Key Bridge tragedy has markings of 1980 Baltimore crash, but worse” written by Curt Devine, Casey Tolan and Isabelle Chapman, CNN Sourcing from the CBS News article, A timeline of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse by Caitlin O’Kane, gave a detailed description of the ships crew members plan to prevent the inevitable accident using the boats radios timestamp. The accident’s cause was due to the loss of power control of the ship, thankfully officials were notified early enough to prevent civilians from driving on the bridge.
At 1:28am, a 911 call from the boat was made stating “I’m not sure if there’s a crew up there, you might want to notify whoever the foreman is, see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily,” O’Kane shared in her article. The crew members recognized a potential crew working on the bridge that needed to be notified about the upcoming crash that was soon to be.
At 1:29am another call was made to 911 announcing the boat lost speed due and crashed into the bridge’s column. Leaving the construction workers no time to exit.
Late into Tuesday morning the FBI began to send dive teams to search the waters and new channels were broadcasting the scene. With the accident gaining more publicity, social media began to become more involved. An image from the beloved cartoon, The Simpsons made by Matt Groening, gained a lot of attention for an image that went viral of the Baltimore ship wreck.
The Simpsons cartoon first aired in 1987 as an addition to the Tracey Ullman show, a segment on Fox Broadcasting Company. Later debuting as its own official show in 1990. The tv show is targeted toward teens of the 90s, which has carried into the 2000s for those who are now parents and their kids.
“My family has much love for The Simpsons show due to the nostalgia it brings my parents. For me personally I don’t have much of an interest in it, my brother Kellen shares their love for the show,” Air Academy High School junior Carly Hallemartin expressed.
The show has many conspiracies surrounding it as many episodes have displayed scenes of future historical events. With the The Simpsons version of the Shipwreck going viral it began a lot of talk; however, the photo was proven to be an AI generated image of the wreck which was never actually aired within the show.
“When seeing the photo on Instagram I thought it was odd considering I hadn’t seen an episode featuring the image before,” AAHS junior Will Graham stated.
With the AI image circling the internet the concern for the accident shifted towards the picture leaving the tragedy to be pushed to the side.
“The fake image brought down the devastation of the wreck which was insensitive to the family of those that were lost in the accident,” AAHS senior Avi Kumar, stated
Social media can cause many problems within the media by twisting situations. What should have been a focus on a devastating accident people were drawn to the AI photo rather than the accident itself. For the families that suffered from this accident Air Academy High School sends nothing but love and peace their way!
