Video: 'May 9, 1980: Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapses'

(Friday, May 9, 1980, 7:33 a.m. EDT) — 35 people were killed today when the Liberian freighter Summit Venture rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section of the southbound span to collapse and dropping a Greyhound bus, six cars and a truck 140 feet into the water.

Video: 'Archived WTVT coverage: Sunshine Skyway Bridge tragedy'

A microburst had suddenly hit the freighter with torrential rains and 70 mile per hour winds as it was in the middle of a turn in the shipping channel nearing the bridge, cutting visibility to near zero and temporarily rendering the ship’s radar useless.