DUMBO, Brooklyn (WABC) — Two people were killed and nearly two dozen were injured when a tall Mexican Navy ship on an international goodwill tour lost power and crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday evening.
The collision happened just before 8:30 p.m. near Brooklyn Bridge Park as horrified onlookers watched helplessly as the massive ship, known as the Cuauhtémoc, with almost 300 sailors on board barreled toward and then smashed into the 142-year-old bridge. The collision caused the ship’s three towering masts to snap upon impact while crew members were left dangling in the air.
According to Mexican Navy officials, a total of 22 crew members have been reported injured so far, with at least 11 of them in critical condition. Two people aboard the ship died as a result of the collision.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams weighed in on social media early Sunday morning about the deadly crash.
“We are praying for everyone on board and their families and are grateful to our first responders who quickly jumped into action, ensuring this accident wasn’t much worse,” Adams said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, the New York City Department of Transportation says the Brooklyn Bridge was not damaged from the collision and that traffic can freely flow.
Vessels moving in the nearby area have since been instructed to proceed at slow speed, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, as the Cuauhtémoc remains at Pier 36 on the East River for damage assessments and further evaluation.
The Cuauhtémoc, a training ship on an international goodwill mission, was set to disembark and was next headed to Iceland when the collision happened.
Authorities say the boat’s captain lost control of the vessel, and Adams on Sunday morning said the ship had lost power. The ship’s masts snapped as they struck the bridge’s underside, and pieces fell onto the deck. Officials say the iconic span itself did not sustain structural damage. All lanes on the bridge reopened after a brief closure following the collision.
The authorities said that 277 people were aboard the ship, and that nobody fell into the water, even as some sailors were left dangling from harnesses on the masts after the crash.
At least 19 people were injured, 4 seriously, after a Mexican Navy boat on a training cruise crashed into the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge, officials say.
The victims were being taken away on stretchers at Pier 17 at South Street Seaport.
The National Transportation Safety Board is on site and will begin its investigation, but preliminary information shows it was likely a mechanical issue with the sailboat, according to officials.
Witness videos capture the ship’s ominous approach toward the bridge. In one video, a woman filming the ship, which was festooned with amber lights and a giant Mexican flag, can be heard wondering aloud if the ship might collide with the bridge. When the ship’s mast strikes the bottom of the bridge, she screams, “It crashed! It crashed!” in Spanish, and then, in English, as the ship continues to approach the Dumbo shore, “Stop! Stop!”
“Oh my God,” she continues in English, and then, in Spanish, she says, “It crashed, it crashed. Run away from there,” referring to people gathered on a pier where the ship seemed about to hit.
ABC News contributor John Nance discusses what we know so far after a Mexican Navy ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.
NYPD Harbor Unit and SCUBA were among the first responders who converged on the scene.
The Mexican ship was described as a “goodwill vessel” that had plied the waters since 1982.
The Cuauhtémoc is about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide, according to the Mexican Navy. The vessel’s main mast has a height of 160 feet, according to the Mexican government.
Each year, the ship sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training. This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6, the navy said.
The Mexican consulate said on May 13 on X that the Cuauhtémoc, also called the “Ambassador and Knight of the Seas,” arrived that day and docked at Pier 17. It invited people to visit through May 17.
The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.
It also had 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.
The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.
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