A Mexican navy sailing ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday during a promotional tour in New York City, the top of its mast brushing the iconic span as it sailed through the East River.
New York City mayor Eric Adams said two people were killed in the incident – another 19 people were injured, including two critically. There were 277 people aboard the ship – the Cuauhtémoc – when it lost power and struck the bridge, Adams said.
In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, three masts of the ship 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, then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
Why was the Mexican navy sailing through NYC?
It was taking part in an ongoing celebration of the 200th anniversary of the independence of Mexico – achieved from Spain in 1821 – and was to have visited 22 ports in 15 countries to “carry the message of peace and goodwill of the Mexican people to the seas and ports of the world”.
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Surely the Captain knew - or should have known - what the clearance height of his own damn vessel is. It’s bad enough when the average trucker misses the local signage and sheers off the top of their truck on a low underpass or tunnel, but passing under the Brooklyn bridge isn’t a spur of the moment decision, and this is just inexcusably incompetent.
The vessel had lost power, apparently, and was adrift. It wasn’t supposed to go near/under the bridge.
Lost power? It’s a sailing ship. This sounds like a skill issue.
Mexico uses meters and the U.S. uses feet. There is a possibility that there was a misunderstanding there because the U.S. uses a dumb system that nobody else uses.
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Well you’d be 100% incorrect. If you watch the video, you can see the ship is going backwards, it wasn’t intended to pass under the bridge at all, because it obviously couldn’t.
I’d still think a Captain of a vessel like this should be capable of metric to imperial conversion as a prerequisite of holding the position, for all that you may be right. While Americans definitely should grow up and adopt a proper sensible modern system of measurement, it really shouldn’t be beyond a person captaining a ship to employ a calculator.
