The United States (US) Coast Guard revealed on Wednesday that the cargo ship involved in the Baltimore bridge crash had undergone routine engine maintenance before the incident.

According to the Associated Press (AP), this disclosure came as divers retrieved the bodies of two of the six workers who fell into the water during the collapse, with the remaining workers presumed dead and search efforts concluded.

“Investigators on Wednesday began collecting evidence from the vessel that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge the previous day. The bodies of the two men were located in the morning inside a red pickup submerged in about 25 feet (7.6 metres) of water near the bridge’s middle span, Col Roland L Butler Jr, superintendent of Maryland State Police, announced at an evening news conference,” the AP report stated.

The deceased individuals were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, aged 35, a resident of Baltimore originally from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, aged 26, residing in Dundalk, Maryland, and hailing from Guatemala.

According to Colonel Butler, the victims hailed from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

The report added that authorities have exhausted all search efforts, with sonar scans indicating that other vehicles with victims inside are likely trapped within superstructures and concrete resulting from the bridge collapse, Colonel Butler emphasised.

The AP said, a colleague of the missing individuals mentioned that the workers were reportedly on break and inside their parked trucks on the bridge when it collapsed.

Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath of the US Coast Guard stated in a press conference that they had been informed about the ship’s scheduled maintenance but had not been alerted to any issues beforehand.

The collision occurred early Tuesday when the ship struck a support pillar, leading to the collapse of the bridge span. The bodies of two of the six workers who fell into the water were recovered earlier on Wednesday, the AP said.