Two crew members died and 27 others were injured after a majestic Mexican Navy vessel, the Cuauhtemoc, collided with the Brooklyn Bridge, police and city officials said Sunday.
The 297-foot Mexican Navy training vessel was bound for Iceland when it lost power around 8:30 p.m. Saturday and was pulled backward by a current into the iconic bridge. The ship had been docked at the South Street Seaport museum last week and was open to free tours.
On Sunday afternoon, Governor of Veracruz Rocio Nahle Garcia identified one of the cadets who lost their lives in the crash as 20-year-old America Yamilet Sanchez.
âI deeply regret the passing of Veracruz cadet America Yamilet Sanchez,ââ Garcia wrote on social media. âMy love, support, and solidarity go out to her family.â
Adal Jair Marcos, 22, was identified as the second victim by local Mexican media outlets.
The Mexican Navy said the Cuauhtemoc was damaged badly enough to prevent it from continuing its voyage.
Videos show the boat drifting backward near the Brooklyn shoreline of the East River, its masts lined with bright lights and a huge Mexican flag fluttering off its stern, as a tugboat motors next to it a little distance away.
As a crowd of onlookers in Brooklyn Bridge Park screamed in shock, all three masts, one after the other, smashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge and snapped forward at 90-degree angles.
âI was actually so confused by what was happening, because it seemed like it was so obvious that it wasn’t going to clear the Brooklyn Bridge ⦠as it was approaching,â said Alicia Jones, 39, who witnessed the crash from near the DUMBO ferry dock.
âI saw when it came across from the Manhattan side and everyone was looking at it. It was blaring music. The music was so loud,” she said. “And then it kept getting closer to the Brooklyn Bridge. And I just kept thinking, âThere is absolutely no way that they’re going that way. They’re gonna turn around, right?â And they didn’t.”
The boat continued to drift onward north of the bridge.
In one video showing the aftermath of the crash, a person appears to be dangling from the sailing ship’s crowâs nest.
Late Saturday night, Mayor Adams said 277 crewmembers were removed from the vessel. Two of them died.
Of the 27 injured survivors, 11 were in critical condition, according to the FDNY.
The bridge was not seriously damaged, Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. said, and was open to traffic Saturday night.
The Cuauhtemoc is now being kept at Pier 36, where several city agencies, including the FDNY and NYPD, will help tend to its upkeep and security, according to city Emergency Management officials.
The two dead were members of the boat’s crew, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said in a social media post.
“There was a couple of sailors on top of [the mast]. These sailors were injured as a result of the mast striking the bridge,” NYPD Special Operations Bureau Chief Wilson Aramboles told reporters Saturday. It wasn’t immediately clear if those sailors were the ones killed in the crash.
None of the victims fell into the water, Aramboles said.
Aramboles said it’s believed the captain lost power while traversing a current and a mechanical malfunction caused the ship to crash into the bridge.
The National Transportation Safety Board has assembled a “go team” to investigate the cause of the crash.
Injured victims were initially taken to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for treatment.
The Cuauhtemoc â about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide, according to the Mexican Navy â sailed for the first time in 1982.
The ship had disembarked from Pier 17 and was heading out to sea to begin a trip to Iceland, Aramboles said.
An academy training vessel, each year it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadetsâ training. This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6 with 277 people onboard, the navy said then.
“The ship is (a) good-will vessel that has been on the waters for more than 20 yeas, sharing Mexican culture,” Mexican ambassador Esteban Moctezuma Barragan told reporters Saturday night.
The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.
It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days, 170 of them at sea.
In a statement, officials added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
âThe Secretary of the Navy renews its commitment to the safety of personnel, transparency in its operations and excellent training for future officers of the Mexican Armada,â the statement said in Spanish.
On Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) questioned whether the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s funding cuts played a role in the crash or diminished the Coast Guard’s ability to prevent it.
“We need to know how this might have impacted the events of last night â from a command, communication and local coordination level,” Schumer said. “The USCG has a traffic control operation that acts like the FAAâs Air Traffic Control, except on water. There are indications that this service, VTS, may not be fully or adequately functional in light of a hiring freeze. If this were the case, the Brooklyn Bridge accident would be a national harbinger, demanding immediate attention.”
Trump fired Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, the armed forcesâ first female service chief, a day after his inauguration. Her second-in-command, Admiral Kevin Lunday, has served as acting commandant since .
With News Wire Services
