Criminal charge filed against cargo ship Dali's chief engineer

Federal prosecutors in Maryland filed a criminal charge Monday against the chief engineer of the cargo ship Dali, alleging he failed to warn the U.S. Coast Guard about dangerous conditions aboard the vessel before it lost power and slammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, collapsing the span and killing six construction workers.

Karthikeyan Deenadayalan was charged in U.S. District Court in Maryland with one count of violating the federal Port and Waterways Safety Act, according to court documents. The charge accuses him of a failure to act — that he knew of hazardous conditions on the ship but did not notify the Coast Guard before the vessel departed the Port of Baltimore.

The Dali suffered a complete loss of propulsion and steering on March 26, 2024, shortly after leaving the port. The disabled ship drifted into one of the Key Bridge’s support columns, causing the entire center span of the bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River. The six construction workers, all immigrants from Latin America who had been filling potholes on the roadway, were killed.

The criminal charge comes more than two years after the disaster and follows a series of related legal developments. Earlier this year, the ship’s operator and an employee were charged in connection with the collapse, and a $2.24 billion settlement was reached.

Prosecutors also filed a notice of a “deferred prosecution agreement” with the court on Monday, though they did not provide details about its terms. Deferred prosecution agreements are typically used in federal cases when a defendant has agreed to meet certain conditions — such as providing testimony, complying with safety requirements, or paying restitution — in exchange for the charges being dropped after a period of time.

Deenadayalan’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As previously reported by MSI, the ship operator and an employee were charged in May 2026, and a federal judge earlier this month postponed a civil trial in the case after multiple settlements were reached.