The coaching ship Cuauhtémoc of the Mexican Navy crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge on the afternoon of Saturday, 17 Could, because it was getting ready to go away New York Metropolis. What was meant to be a festive farewell after a four-day stopover resulted in a tragedy that’s proving exhausting to elucidate. Not less than two crew members died and one other 20 had been injured when the ship’s three masts broke one after the other as they struck the bottom of town’s most iconic bridge.
The ambiance had been celebratory. Crowds gathered on the pier, desirous to take pictures on the deck with town skyline as a backdrop. On board, the mariachi group Huella Mexicana offered a soundtrack to the farewell, enjoying México, Lindo y Querido and Las Golondrinas, the standard Mexican tune usually heard when saying goodbye.
The cadets perched on the masts – the tallest of which reaches 45 metres, whereas the bridge’s clearance is 39 metres – had been the final to grasp what was about to occur. Shortly after 8pm, the ship started its departure manoeuvre. With their backs to the Brooklyn Bridge, the cadets waved goodbye to the crowds gathered at Pier 17 on the Manhattan aspect. Seconds later, a few of them fell into the void, whereas others remained suspended within the air by their security harnesses.
Hundreds of witnesses captured the second on their cell phones throughout what had been a heat Could afternoon. New York firefighters had been the primary to reply to the scene, and quite a few movies shared on social media confirmed emergency crews transporting a few of the injured on stretchers. Authorities have to date dominated out that any of the sailors fell into the waters of the East River, and by late Saturday, the one seen signal of the incident was a broken part of fencing pushed in by the ship’s impression alongside the riverside walkway on the Brooklyn shore.
The mayor, Eric Adams, stated that the 142-year-old bridge had not suffered any important structural injury. He instructed that {an electrical} situation might have precipitated the present to tug the ship in direction of the pillars. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, additionally expressed her remorse over the incident and thanked the mayor of New York for his help. “Our solidarity and help exit to the households,” she stated.
Mexican authorities’s precedence
Mexico’s ambassador to the US, Esteban Moctezuma, had additionally taken half within the farewell celebration, alongside fellow diplomat Héctor Vasconcelos. After the accident, Moctezuma said that the Mexican authorities’s precedence was to help the injured sailors, a process being coordinated by means of the Mexican consulate in New York.
Though the reason for the accident continues to be underneath investigation, early theories counsel a technical failure led to a lack of energy, leaving the ship on the mercy of the river’s present, which then dragged it into the bridge. One witness on land at Pier 17 stated the tugboat failed, which is supposed to help the ship in safely departing the dock.
Police reported that the Cuauhtémoc’s mast peak was 48.2 metres (158 ft), whereas the New York transport division’s web site lists the bridge’s central clearance as 135 ft.
The Cuauhtémoc‘s crew is made up of 64 girls and 213 males. The ship had departed from the port of Acapulco on 6 April with the mission of “selling the seafaring spirit” and “carrying a message of peace and goodwill from the individuals of Mexico.” Its deliberate journey included stops at 22 ports in 15 international locations. Earlier than arriving in New York, the ship had visited Jamaica and Cuba, and was subsequent scheduled to move to Iceland. The voyage was anticipated to final 170 days at sea and 84 days in port.
Keep tuned with Euro weekly information for the newest information about Europe and the world.