WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The tragedy in Baltimore is resurfacing many memories for those who lived through the Skyway Bridge collapse in Tampa Bay nearly 44 years ago.
"I turned on the TV and immediately saw a picture of the bridge draped across the bow of the vessel and immediately envisioned the day the Skyway got hit and it was almost an identical shot. It was almost an identical picture," Robert Raiola, a former dive inspector for the Florida State Department of Transportation, said. He is now 77 years old.
About 1,200 feet of the Skyway Bridge, which links Pinellas and Manatee counties, collapsed May 9, 1980.
The Skyway and Francis Scott Key bridge tragedies involved a ship crashing into the bridges, causing both to collapse. Raiola helped pull victims out of the water decades ago.
"While we were in the coffee shop, the girls came from behind the counter and told us that the bridge had been hit," Raiola said. "The boss notified us that we needed to get our gear and ourselves down to the Skyway Bbridge and that's what we did."
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Raiola said he and his partner pulled seven victims out of a bus that had fallen into the water.
"Forty-four years, do you still think about that incident to this day?" WPTV reporter Joel Lopez asked.
"Yes, I have days when I have good thoughts and other days when of course something like this comes up that makes it difficult to forget," Raiola said. "As a combat veteran and marine, you don't leave anybody behind. My Navy partner you don't leave anybody in the water,. We did not want to leave that night."
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The Skyway bridge tragedy left 35 people dead.
Raiola said their search was called off by the Coast Guard from what he said were concerns of the structural integrity of the rest of the bridge, incoming inclement weather and reports of sharks in the area.
"There was very little hope at the time, the majority of people died from blunt trauma impact, and seven victims had drowned, some in vehicles that had toppled into the water," Raiola said.
Raiola said the challenge for rescue crews in Baltimore will be current and visibility in the water, and that many of the vehicles may be entangled with the steel from the bridge that collapsed.
"I think the biggest thing for the guys in Baltimore is going to be when they're pulled off the job tonight that they're probably going to be concerned that they left some victims in there," Raiola said.
Maryland authorities said at least six people are missing and presumed dead as the Coast Guard has called off the search for survivors and will shift to a recovery mission.
"When you leave the house give your wife and your family a hug and a kiss because you never know when your time is here," Raiola said. "Those were innocent people who had no expectations of not making it to their destinations."
Construction on a replacement bridge started in 1983 and took more than four years to complete.