Mexican navy sailing ship hits Brooklyn Bridge
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A Mexican navy sailing ship about to leave New York for a goodwill tour to Iceland struck the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday night, snapping its three masts, injuring crew members and leaving some dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help..
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at least 19 people needed medical treatment after the crash, including four with serious injuries, but the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage. The cause of the collision was under investigation.
In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the masts could be seen snapping and partially collapsing as they crashed into the deck of the bridge. Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the collision.
The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted toward the piers lining the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away.
Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, remarkably, no one fell into the water, officials said.
Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz told The Associated Press they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge. Looking closer, they saw someone dangling from high on the ship.
“We saw someone dangling, and I couldn’t tell if it was just blurry or my eyes, and we were able to zoom in on our phone and there was someone dangling from the harness from the top for like at least like 15 minutes before they were able to rescue them,” Katz said.
Just before the collision, Nick Corso, 23, took his phone out to capture the backdrop of the ship and the bridge against a sunset, Instead, he heard what sounded like the loud snapping of a “big twig.” Several more snaps followed.
People in his vicinity began running back and “pandemonium” on the boat erupted, he said. He later saw a handful of people dangling from the mast.
“I didn’t know what to think, I was like, is this a movie?” he said.
The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was an academy training vessel. It said a total of 22 people were injured, 19 of whom needed medical treatment.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said on X that its ambassador to the U.S. and officials from the Mexican consulate in New York were in contact with local authorities to provide assistance.
The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (490-meter) main span supported by two masonry towers. More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross every day, according to the city’s transportation department, and its walkway is a major tourist attraction.
Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after the span underwent an initial inspection, city officials said.
The Cuauhtemoc — about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide (90.5 meters long and 12 meters wide), according to the Mexican navy — sailed for the first time in 1982.
The vessel’s main mast has a height of 160 feet (48.9 meters), according to the Mexican government.
After the collision, a tugboat held it in place in the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
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 May 13 on X that the Cuauhtemoc, 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.