CAPABILITIES
AT THE READY
Our Role in the Bridge Probe,
Part 2
08/21/07
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FBI
Evidence Response Team members plot
wreckage of the I-35W bridge that collapsed
August 1 in Minneapolis. The data, which
collectively make up a digital representation
of the fallen bridge, will be analyzed
by FBI Laboratory and NTSB investigators
to help determine the cause of the collapse. Photo Gallery |
In the hours after the Interstate 35W bridge
collapsed in Minneapolis, FBI agents were
working their channels to determine if the
span’s six-story, rush-hour fall was
the result of a criminal or terrorist act.
Agents probing the site looked much like
you might expect at a typical raid or crime
scene—their gear announcing their individual
roles as FBI terrorism experts, bomb technicians,
and evidence collectors.
In short order, however, as it became clear
the collapse wasn’t a malevolent act,
our presence took on a decidedly different
hue. In the days after the August 1 collapse,
FBI personnel were armed not with heavy weapons
and armor but high tech mapping tools, underwater
diving gear, and tons of equipment. Their
mission: to help the agencies that were leading
the probe recover victims and evidence and
to determine what may have caused the fatal
bridge failure.
The protocol for investigating events like
this are mapped out well in advance through
drills, joint operations, and agreements
among agencies.
“The success of an operation like
this doesn’t happen by chance,” said
Minneapolis Special Agent Paul McCabe.
In this case, once criminal intent was
ruled out, the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) took the lead in the federal
bridge probe. The NTSB in turn has an arrangement
with the Bureau to assist in gathering evidence
in disasters to help pinpoint the cause.
That set in motion our Evidence Response
Team Unit at the FBI Laboratory in Virginia,
which dispatched specially trained agents
from around the country to aid the effort
in Minneapolis.
Here’s a look at how we supported
the probe:
- Mapping the Scene: Supervisory
Special Agent Gary Reinecke was wading
though an Alabama landfill on a case when
he received the NTSB call. Reinecke manages
the FBI’s program for mapping debris
fields and other forensic evidence at disaster
scenes. The painstaking process involves
surveying a site and mapping millions of
points to create an accurate digital representation
of the collapse aftermath. The raw information
is then fed to the FBI Lab. Reinecke dispatched
trained teams of agents from our Pittsburgh,
San Antonio, and Chicago field offices
to map the site using Total Station technology,
which is like traditional surveying, and
a three-dimensional laser scanner, which
gives an enormous amount of detail to the
digital maps. Reinecke chats weekly with
the NTSB and their teams cross-train frequently,
so he knew exactly what to do when the
call came in. “We get involved in
investigations from the get-go,” Reinecke
said. “If we wait four days and it’s
discovered that it’s terrorism, we’re
already a month behind.”
- Interpreting the Data: Much
of the raw information that Reinecke’s
crew gathers is sent to the FBI Lab, where
the Special Projects Unit turns the data
into visual representations. The unit may
be best known for reconstructing crime
scenes or facial imaging, but in this case
the data on the I-35W bridge will be analyzed
and sent to the NTSB. There, engineers
marry the new data with historical information
about the bridge to build elaborate computer
scenarios that may help pinpoint a cause.
A Special Projects team member was on site
interpreting the data and feeding results
to NTSB officials almost in real time.
- Underwater Search: Early
in the investigation the Hennepin County
Sheriff’s Office sent divers to search
for victims. After President Bush visited
the site, the FBI and the U.S. Navy were
summoned to send teams of divers to support
the local search and recovery. Like Reinecke’s
crew, the FBI divers’ role was to
map the scene, only this time in a strong
zero-visibility current strewn with bridge
debris. “If we can see our hands
in front of our face, that’s good
visibility,” said Supervisory Special
Agent Kevin Horn, program manager of the
Lab’s Underwater Search and Evidence
Response Team (USERT), who led FBI divers
dispatched from our field offices in New
York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
The teams used sonar, underwater cameras,
and remote-operated vehicles to plumb the
debris field and look for passageways in
and around “the pile” for divers
to search for victims and forensic evidence.
The divers are used to working under the
worst circumstances—having been dispatched
to Iraq—but the debris field in the
Mississippi River presented its own challenges. “The
entanglement risk is just constant,” said
Horn.
Reinecke’s mapping team and Horn’s
divers were each on the scene for just under
a week, then headed back to their respective
field offices to resume ongoing cases, each
keeping a bag packed for the next call.
“We were asked to help,” Agent
Horn said as he set off on a boat with his
divers and a Sheriff’s deputy to look
for evidence. “We’re here to
assist and put our skills to good use. It’s
a real tragedy, and our hearts go out to
this city.”
Part I of this series looked at how
we coordinate with federal, state, and
local partners. Part III in the coming
days look at the FBI’s initial response
from the point of view of Assistant Special
Agent in Charge Tim Gossfeld.
Resources:
-
Part I: Our Role in Bridge Collapse Probe
-
Learn
More About the FBI’s Dive Teams