U.S. federal officials launch investigation into Mexican tall ship that struck Brooklyn Bridge

A masted Mexican Navy training ship, the Cuauhtémoc, sits stranded after colliding with the Brooklyn Bridge after, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Kyle Viterbo)

NEW YORK — Federal transportation officials have launched an investigation into why a Mexican navy tall ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge in a collision that snapped the vessel’s three masts, killed two crew members and left some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air.

The ship known as the Cuauhtemoc was visiting New York on a global goodwill tour when the accident occurred Saturday evening. The vessel could be seen in multiple eyewitness videos traveling swiftly in reverse toward the bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River. Then its three masts struck the bridge and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving.

It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. The National Transportation Safety Board announced that it was sending a team to investigate. Investigators were expected to arrive Sunday afternoon.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge escaped major damage, but at least 19 people aboard the ship needed medical treatment.

Two of the four people who suffered serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media.

Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8:20 p.m. collision. No one on the bridge was hurt.

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.

Just before the collision, Nick Corso 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 Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was a training vessel. It said a total of 22 people were injured.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum lamented the loss of the two crew members.

“Our solidarity and support go out to their families,” Sheinbaum said on X.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (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. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.

New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to head out to sea, not toward the bridge.

He said an initial report was that the ship lost power due to a mechanical problem, though officials cautioned that the information was preliminary. Videos show a tugboat was close to the Cuauhtemoc at the time of the crash.

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 May 13 in New York City, 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 Cuauhtemoc sailed for the first time in 1982. It is almost 300 feet long and 40 feet wide (90.5 metres long and 12 metres wide). The vessel’s main mast has a height of 160 feet (48.9 metres), according to Mexican navy and government officials.

Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Jennifer Peltz in New York, Sejal Govindarao in Phoenix, Arizona, and Gene Johnson in Seattle, Washington, contributed to this report.

Ruth Brown And Kyle Marian Viterbo, The Associated Press