Right happening now, investigators are searching for the voyage data recorder, basically a ship’s black box, after a Mexican naval training ship lost power and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. Two people are dead, more than a dozen injured. Officials say there was a mechanical issue and the captain lost steering of the vessel.
We are expecting a news conference from the NTSB today. Let’s get right to CNN’s Gloria Pazmino near the bridge this morning. Gloria, what’s the very latest? Well, John, we’re standing here at Pier 35 where the Cuauhtemoc was towed to on Saturday evening after that crash.
Now, NTSB officials started arriving here yesterday afternoon and we are expecting a briefing from them later today. The primary questions here, obviously, what happened? Was it a power failure that led to this collision between the ship and hitting that underside of the bridge on Saturday evening? Another key question here is whether or not there was any role that the tugboat that was pulling the ship played during that trajectory as the ship was making its way out of the New York Harbour. The Cuauhtemoc was on a worldwide goodwill mission bringing Mexican naval culture around the world.
It had been here in New York City docked for the past few days and it has been really difficult for the Mexican community here in New York City, which has come out. They were here yesterday all day long. Some of them have been dropping off flowers in memory of those two people whose lives were sadly lost.
We’ve actually learned their identities overnight. Mexican government officials have identified them as Cadet America Yamilet Sanchez as well as Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos. We’ve also heard from America’s family in Mexico.
They are wondering what happened here and how soon they’re going to get some answers. I want you to take a listen to the commissioner of the emergency management office here in New York City talking about the early stages of the investigation. Take a listen.
Something happened during that period of time where the ship reportedly lost power, possibly lost steerage, and that’s when it ended up going in the wrong direction towards the bridge. But that’s very preliminary at this point and there still needs to be an investigation that will take place. Part of what investigators want to do as well, John, is make sure that this ship can be brought to dry dock so it can be repaired and sent on its way.
Also, late last night, the remainder of the crew, a little over 200 people, were actually bussed from here to John F. Kennedy Airport. They were able to get on a flight back to Mexico last night. I’m sure a relief for many of them.
Some of them remain here on board, expecting that investigation to continue in the next several days. John? Yeah, so many questions. That video, just horrible.
Gloria Pasmino at Pier 17, thank you very much for that. New this morning, the NTSB will hold a news conference about the ongoing investigation into the Mexican Navy training ship that struck the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday evening. Officials say the ship was carrying 277 people when it lost power and all three of its masts ended up striking that bridge, each breaking on impact.
Mexican officials have identified the two people who were killed during the collision after they fell from one of the ship’s masts. The first victim was Cadet America Yamilet Sanchez and the second, a sailor, Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos. CNN Safety Analyst David Soucy joining me now.
First of all, looking at this ship, how in God’s green earth did this actually happen? Well, Sarah, it’s pretty similar actually to what happened on the key bridge when it collapsed. It looks like they lost power to the rudder. They weren’t able to navigate or steer the ship at all.
I believe they lost thrust power as well or they would have averted this. But you can see it just drifts backward and it seems to be going slow. But the speed and the inertia of that ship could have caused some serious damage to that pier.
You heard that some of the early investigation is that, like you said, that the power went out somewhere, although you can still see the lights on the mast there. So no control of the ship. But I guess the big question is, what were they doing in that area anyway? It seems like they were on the wrong course.
Well, it seems like they were, but however, they were actually at the museum. This is part of a celebration tour or a goodwill tour for that ship. It was manufactured in Spain years ago and it’s been touring the world, actually.
So that’s why it stopped in New York as a goodwill tour. Departed that is when it lost power and started drifting back up the river, which was not its intent. It was heading out to sea.
It was heading to Reykjavik, actually, from there. So it was going to be quite a long trip. They were going to make fuel stops, other stops along the way.
But it just simply was not headed in that direction until the river brought it that direction to collide with the bridge. David, you mentioned the Key Bridge. And one of the key differences, obviously, is that this isn’t a huge container ship that is so heavy.
This is a very different kind of ship. So what will the NTSB be looking for in this case? What will they be after? What will they be looking for to try to figure out exactly how all this went down? Well, they’ll look at the actual approximate causes of the things that happened on the site. But more than that, I would expect in their recommendation that they’re going to include a lot of retrospect to look and see how the ports and how the piers are managed.
You can see that there’s a tugboat that tried to prevent the collision as the ship was removed, as the ship moved. And that tugboat was instrumental in preventing further damages because it held it in place. So this is one of the things the NTSB recommendations will say.
Their scope goes far beyond the actual accident on site. It’s procedural. It’s do we need to have tugboats on ships of a certain size before they leave port? What kind of safety precautions are in place before the ships leave so that they can prevent these types of tragedies? Yeah, it’s so awful.
There’s so much video sort of people on either side of that bridge seeing at one point two people who are at the very top of those masts kind of falling down. Do we have any idea what they were doing up there? Were they lookouts? Was this part of sort of the presentation of the whole thing? Well, in ferralling the sails, and I’m not a sailor, but this is things that I’ve investigated since this accident. But in ferralling the sails, bringing them up and stowing them, it does require people to be up there just for inspection and make sure that it’s stowed properly.
So that may have been why they were there at that time after they left port. But you would think that that had been done before they left port. So why they were up there at that time, I really couldn’t say.
Those masts are steel masts. They’re not like light aluminium masts like you might find on a regular sail ship. These things are massive, and I’m surprised they didn’t cause more damage than they did.
But fortunately, those were not the sailors that were injured and killed. The injured parties were on the deck when pieces fell and hit them on the deck. So it is tragic.
David, it really is tragic, and so many people witnessed it as well. Hard to see, but incredible that the Brooklyn Bridge started up and running 40 minutes later. So it didn’t do major, major damage to the bridge.
I mean, that is pretty wild. David Soucy, thank you so much for your great analysis. We always appreciate it when you come on.