Mexican navy tall ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge, killing two

NEW YORK — Two crew members of a Mexican navy sailing ship died Saturday night when the ship drifted directly into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge, smashing its masts and rigging.

There were 277 people on board the ship, the Cuauhtémoc, which was on a goodwill tour, and everyone is believed to be accounted for, a Fire Department official said.

Mayor Eric Adams said in a social media post after midnight that two people had died, and that the ship had lost power before the crash.

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said on social media that the two people who died were crew members on the Cuauhtémoc.

Mexican officials identified one of the dead as América Yamileth Sánchez Hernández, from the state of Veracruz. In a social media post, the state’s governor, Rocío Nahle, confirmed her death and sent condolences to her family. “Veracruz is with you,” she wrote.

At least 22 others were injured in the crash, including 11 who were in critical condition and nine in stable condition, the Mexican navy said in a statement.

The ship had been docked at Pier 17 in Manhattan, just below the Brooklyn Bridge.

On Saturday night, it was supposed to head south and sail out of New York Harbor, with a stop on the Brooklyn waterfront to refuel before heading onward to Iceland.

Instead, at about 8:30 p.m., the Cuauhtémoc was apparently heading in the wrong direction, having never intended to sail under the Brooklyn Bridge, said a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Emergency Management.

At the moment of collision, according to videos verified by Reuters, two people who appeared to have been on the topmost rung of the mast could be seen swinging forward violently. In the immediate aftermath, the videos showed, some people were hanging from the wreckage by ropes, and others inched along on their bellies toward the center.

In other videos posted on social media, a tugboat could be seen near the Cuauhtémoc, which appeared to be moving backward, stern first, when it crashed.

The vessel lurched but stayed upright as it came to a stop at Brooklyn Bridge Park, according to social media video and images from the scene. Its masts appeared to be badly damaged.

At a news conference Saturday, authorities said the pilot who was assigned to navigate the Cuauhtémoc out of the channel experienced “mechanical issues.” The National Transportation Safety Board will be doing a full investigation of the crash.

The commander of the Mexican navy, Adm. Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, said in a statement Sunday that the uninjured cadets would continue their training and that the investigation into the crash would be carried out “with total transparency and responsibility.”

“We know that every sailing trip involves risks inherent to our seafaring vocation,” Morales Ángeles said.

Nick Corso, 23, was finishing dinner with friends at a restaurant nearby when they saw the ship heading toward them.

He thought at first that the vessel would clear the bridge, he said, but then “the top lights on the mast disappeared behind the bridge and I was like, oh, it’s not going to make it.”

When the top of a mast hit the underside of the bridge, he said, “you could hear it snap.”

At Pier 16, where the injured were brought, a large crowd gathered by the waterfront, and emergency vehicles with lights flashing filled South Street. Periodically, emergency workers wheeled victims with neck braces on toward ambulances and loaded them in on gurneys. Whenever a new survivor appeared, the crowd broke into cheers and applause and chanted: “Mex-i-co! Mex-i-co!”

© 2025 The New York Times Company