Two sailors are dead after a Mexican tall ship, owned by the Mexican Navy, crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. An investigation is underway into what may have caused the collision.
A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour on Saturday, snapping its three masts, killing two crew members and leaving some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage but at least 19 people aboard the ship needed medical treatment.
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The ship, the Cuauhtémoc, had arrived earlier in the week to the South Street Seaport Museum and was offering tours to the public before it departed New York City bound for Iceland when the collision happened. The crash, which happened just before 8:30 p.m., occurred when the Mexican navy ship hit the bridge during a sailing maneuver on a training cruise, according to a social media post from the Mexican navy. The ship apparently lost steering power and was pulled into the bridge by the river's current, according to an NYPD official.
Nineteen people were injured, Adams said on X early Sunday, two of whom remained in critical condition “and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries." Sunday morning the Mexican navy sent out a statement with an updated injury report saying 22 total crew members were injured, including 11 in critical condition and nine in stable condition.
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Adams said at a news conference Saturday night that the tall ship with 277 people on board suffered a mechanical mishap that caused it to veer into the bridge as it had set sail from Pier 17 en route to sea.
“The pilot lost power of the ship,” he said, adding that two crew members were on a mast and were injured in the collision.
U.S. & World
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.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor)
Following our preliminary inspection, we can confirm that the bridge sustained no damage and is now open to…
The most critically injured sailors were up on the mast of the ship at the time it crashed into the bridge, officials said. No one fell into the water, but divers went into the water as a precaution, according to three police officials briefed.
The injured were taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment, the mayor said.
"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.
The cause of the collision remains under investigation. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the National Transportation Safety Board will take lead on the investigation and will conduct a full review.
As of Sunday morning, the ship had been taken to Pier 36 on the Lower East Side where it was guarded by NYPD officers and an NYPD harbor unit in the water. The U.S. Coast Guard said it has set up a 50-yard safety zone around the ship.
In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the ship, called the Cuauhtemoc, could be seen traveling swiftly in reverse toward the bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River. Then, its three masts struck the bridge's span and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving.
Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8:20 p.m. collision. No one on the bridge was reported injured.
The vessel, which was flying a giant Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted into a pier on 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.
“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.
The U.S. Coast Guard initially suspended commercial ship traffic in the area and set up a safety zone from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Manhattan Bridge while first responders helped rescue the people onboard.
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 and “pandemonium” erupted aboard the ship, he said. He later saw a handful of people dangling from a mast.
“I didn’t know what to think, I was like, is this a movie?” he said.
The FDNY brought rescue crews to the ship and began treating them on the vessel.
"Once the marine units arrived on scene, we knew, initially, we knew immediately that we had a serious incident with a boat striking the bridge," said FDNY Chief of Training Michael Meyers in a statement on social media.
"Our marine units got out there, picked up Rescue 2 and Rescue 4 and brought them out to the vessel. They started to remove and treat the aided. They also brought EMS units out to the vessel to start to treat the more seriously injured people on that vessel," he said.
Bystanders could be heard cheering and chanting as rescuers removed sailors from the ship and brought them on stretchers to safety.
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.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum regretted the loss of the two crew members.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of two crew members of the Cuauhtémoc Training Ship, who lost their lives in the unfortunate accident in New York Harbor. Our sympathy and support go out to their families.,” .
The Mexican navy said it is working to reunite the crew members and cadets on board with their families.
"The Navy, aware of the risks naval personnel face in their operations, deeply regrets what happened and reaffirms its commitment to the crew's families to provide timely attention and follow-up to the investigations into the events that occurred to accurately determine the causes of this incident," a statement read.
The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot 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. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.
Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said. The NYC Department of Transportation said preliminary inspections found no signs of structural damage.
NYC DOT bridge inspectors have been on site since this evening’s boat crash. While inspections will remain ongoing, there are no signs of structural damage to the Brooklyn Bridge.
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT)
It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.
He said an initial report was that the pilot of the ship had lost power due to a mechanical problem, though officials cautioned that information was preliminary. Videos show a tugboat was close to the Cuauhtemoc at the time of the crash.
The Cuauhtemoc — about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide, according to the Mexican navy — sailed for the first time in 1982.
The vessel’s main mast has a height of 160 feet, according to the Mexican government.
As midnight approached, the broken boat was moved slowly up the East River, going under and past the Manhattan Bridge, aided by a series of tugboats, before docking at a pier. Onlookers continued to gather on the waterfront to watch the spectacle.
Each year the Cuauhtemoc 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.
It arrived in New York City on May 13, where visitors were welcome for several days, the Mexican consulate said. The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations over 254 days, 170 of them at sea.
"The Mexican Navy Tall Ship was here on an independent official goodwill visit and welcomed dignitaries and media while docked at Pier 17. That said, we had hoped and expected she would join the parade of international tall ships on July 4, 2026 for America's 250th," a spokesperson for said. The ship was no currently committed to participate in next year's event.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was briefed on the collision and has offered the support of state resources to the city.
