Feds probing tugboat's possible role in deadly Mexican ship, Brooklyn Bridge crash

New York Post

19-05-2025

NTSB probers Monday said they are investigating a tugboat's possible role in a Mexican ship's crash into the Brooklyn Bridge — while adding they have yet to board the foreign craft, much less talk to its crew.
'Part of our investigation will be to look into procedures' involving tug boats in the harbor, agency investigator Brian Young told reporters at the first National Transportation Safety Board briefing since the Saturday night collision that killed two young Mexican sailors.
3 The Cuauhtemoc BE-01 Mexican Ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.
G.N.Miller/NYPost
A local tugboat had been helping to guide the Mexican boat out of port before the tall ship headed to Iceland.
Questions have arisen over whether the tug may have too quickly released the ship, when then barreled in reverse into the span.
Young and NTSB board member Michael Graham cautioned that the investigation is preliminary, noting that the agency is still negotiating with the Mexican government to get access to the ship and the cadets who remain on board.
Dozens of the sailors have already left for home.
3 Two people died and 17 were injured during the crash on Saturday.
Paul Martinka
'Still working to get access to the ship,' Graham said at the briefing. 'We haven't yet had a chance to access the engine.
'We haven't had a chance to talk to any of the crew at this point. We are working with our counterparts in the Mexican government to gain access to the ship.'
Young detailed the final minutes before the Cuauhtemoc, a three-mast training ship for Mexican navy cadets, allegedly lost its steering ability and struck the historic span — demonstrating how quickly things turned deadly.
Here is the latest on the Brooklyn Bridge crash involving a Mexican navy tall ship
'At 8:24 p.m., a [voyage data recorder] radio broadcast was sounded requesting assistance from other tugboats in the area of the Brooklyn Bridge,' Young said.
'That was followed by two other requests for assistance, and at 8:24 and 45 seconds, the vessel's mast struck the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge. At 8:27, the vessel came to a stop.'
He said NYPD and FDNY boats were at the scene by 8:30 p.m.
Shocking footage captured the collision and showed cadets clinging to the rigging around the showboat ship's the 147-foot masts.
In addition to the two fatalities, more than 20 others on the ship were injured.
Sources have told The Post that the ship, built in Spain in 1982, was on its way to the Brooklyn waterfront to refuel before setting sale to Iceland — but suffered a mechanical failure that shut down its steering.
3 Two NTSB officials brief the media on Monday afternoon.
Gregory P. Mango
The tragedy cost Mexican cadets America Yamilet Sanchez and Adal Jair Marcos their lives.
Sanchez, a onetime award-winning swimmer from the Veracruz capital of Xalapa, posted a haunting photo from the Big Apple waterfront on Facebook earlier on Saturday.
Marcos, known to friends as 'Tyson' or simply 'Marcos,' had been on board the Cuauhtemoc for nine months and boasted to friends about his travels around the globe.
The two were among 277 crew members on board – 213 men and 64 women, most of them cadets from the Heroica Escuala Naval Militar, the Mexican navy's officer training academy in Veracruz.
The ship was taking part in a training cruise to mark the so-called 'Bicentennial of the Consolidation of the Independence of the Seas,' the 200th anniversary of the Mexican navy expelling Spain from their nation.
It set sail from Cozumel in the Yucatan Peninsula on May 4 on a170-day voyage that was to take the crew to 22 ports in 15 countries.
The ship was also slated to be part of the Class A International Tall Ships parade the is due to parade in the harbor on July 4, 2026, although organizers said Mexican officials had yet to confirm their involvement.
During ceremonies on board last week at the South Street Seaport, dozens of the cadets mounted the masts for a display known as 'manning the yards' – a universal sign of respect traditionally done as a vessel enters a new port.