Source : the age
New York: A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday night, snapping its three masts, fatally injuring two crew members and leaving some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said 19 people were injured in the crash, but the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage. Two of the four people who suffered more serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media early on Sunday morning.
The cause of the collision was under investigation.
In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the masts could be seen snapping as they crashed into the deck of the bridge. Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the collision, while sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts.
“No one fell into the water; they were all hurt inside the ship,” a police official said.
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.
The official said mechanical issues had probably caused the crash, without providing further details.
Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz said they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge and one of its masts snap. Looking closer, they saw someone dangling from high up 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.
They said they saw two people removed from the ship on stretchers onto smaller boats.
Tugs assist the stricken ship.Credit: AP
Nick Corso, 23, was finishing dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant when they saw the ship heading towards them, The New York Times reported. When the top of the mast hit the underside of the bridge, “you could hear it snap”, he told the masthead.
The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that damage to the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, prevented it from continuing its voyage. No rescue operations were needed because no-one fell into the water, it added.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said on X that its ambassador to the US and officials from the Mexican consulate in New York were in contact with local authorities to provide assistance to “the affected cadets”, but it did not mention injuries.
The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 490-metre 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.
The Cuauhtemoc – about 90.5 metres long and 12 metres wide, according to the Mexican navy – sailed for the first time in 1982.
Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training. In October last year, it docked in Port Melbourne’s Station Pier and was open to the public over the school holidays.
This year, it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6 with 277 people onboard, the navy said then.
The Mexican consulate said on 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.
AP
