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Instagram posts

stated on April 2, 2024 in an Instagram post:

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was “targeted with energy weapons.”

In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP)

By Sara Swann April 4, 2024

New ‘energy weapon’ conspiracy theory targets collapsed Baltimore bridge

If Your Time is short

Video footage shows a cargo ship colliding with one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s support columns, causing the bridge’s collapse.
The investigation continues. Federal and Maryland officials have called the incident an accident.
Similar claims have been made linking directed energy weapons to wildfires in the United States, Canada and Russia. But these claims are also unfounded.
No spin, just facts you can trust. Here’s how we do it.

See the sources for this fact-check

Directed energy weapons are real and fire concentrated electromagnetic energy at light speed. These weapons include high-energy lasers, high-power microwaves and radio frequency devices. The United States and other countries are researching using directed-energy weapons for military purposes.

What do these weapons have to do with the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore? Absolutely nothing, despite what some social media posts claim.

About a week after a cargo ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supports and caused the bridge’s collapse, an Instagram account shared a familiar conspiracy theory that the bridge was intentionally destroyed using directed energy weapons.

"Is Baltimore bridge planned collapse?" read text on a photo of the bridge. "Was the Baltimore bridge targeted with energy weapons?"

The post’s caption claimed the bridge collapse was "a stealth plot planned in advance."

(Screengrab from Instagram)

The investigation into the March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse continues, but there is no evidence supporting this claim. Over the past year, we’ve documented similar false claims that linked wildfires in the United States (Texas and Hawaii), Canada and Russia to directed energy weapons.

Facebook posts

stated on March 27, 2024 in Facebook posts

The ship that struck the Baltimore bridge was controlled by a Chinese company.

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Let’s review what happened:

At about 1:30 a.m., March 26, the 984-foot-long Dali cargo ship, weighing 112,000 gross tons, or about 248 million pounds, collided with the 1.6-mile bridge. Minutes before the crash, the local pilot issued a mayday call to say the ship had lost power and warn officials to stop traffic from crossing the bridge.

Video footage shows the ship hitting one of the bridge’s support columns, causing the rest of the bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River. The National Transportation Safety Board, the independent federal agency that is leading the investigation into the crash, said audio recordings from the ship reported sounds consistent with a collision.

Federal and Maryland officials said they do not think the ship’s crash into the bridge was intentional. Officials have called the event an accident.

We rate the claim that Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was "targeted with energy weapons" Pants on Fire!