May 18 \u2013 Two people have been killed and 19 others injured after a tall Mexican Navy training sailing ship crashed into New York City\u2019s Brooklyn Bridge.<\/p>\n
Police said the Cuauht\u00e9moc, with 277 people on board, lost power on Saturday as the captain was manoeuvring the vessel, forcing it to head for the bridge abutment on the Brooklyn side.<\/p>\n
Footage shows the ship\u2019s towering masts clip the bridge as it passed under the structure. Crew members were standing on the masts as they snapped and fell to the deck, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn resident Nick Corso, who witnessed the accident, said the area erupted in panic. There was \u201clots of screaming, some sailors hanging from the masts,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed on X that two people died and two of the 19 injured were in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Bridge did not suffer any major damage and was reopened after a preliminary inspection.<\/p>\n
Police said they believed \u201cmechanical issues\u201d and a power cut had caused the collision.<\/p>\n
The New York Coast Guard said the Cuauht\u00e9moc lost all three masts. All personnel on the ship had been accounted for and no-one had fallen in the water.<\/p>\n
Crowds fled from the water\u2019s edge as the ship hit the bridge.<\/p>\n
Another witness, Kelvin Flores, told the BBC he was at work when he saw the crash.<\/p>\n
He came out into the street to find a lot of \u201ccommotion and a lot of chaos\u201d with fire engines and police trying to reach the scene but the roads clogged with traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust seeing the actual damage was insane,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople carrying stretchers\u2026 they were trying to get the injured out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she was deeply saddened by the loss of two crew members in the accident.<\/p>\n
The Cuauht\u00e9moc was towed from the scene after the crash.<\/p>\n
The vessel, which measures 297 feet long (91m) and 40 feet (12m) wide, according to the Mexican navy, sailed for the first time in 1982.<\/p>\n
Each year it sets sail at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets\u2019 training.<\/p>\n
This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco on 6 April, the navy said. Its final destination was intended to be Iceland.<\/p>\n
Police said the Cuauht\u00e9moc\u2019s mast height was 48.2m (158ft). The New York transport department\u2019s website says the bridge has a 135ft clearance at its centre.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May 18 \u2013 Two people have been killed and 19 others injured after a tall Mexican Navy training sailing ship crashed into New York City\u2019s Brooklyn Bridge. Police said the Cuauht\u00e9moc, with 277 people on board, lost power on Saturday as the captain was manoeuvring the vessel, forcing it to head for the bridge abutment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}