Mexican navy ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge leaving two dead, 27 injured

Around 27 people were injured and two died when a Mexican Navy training ship carrying 277 passengers struck the underside of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA, on Saturday night.

“At approximately 8.20 pm on Saturday, the New York City Fire Department received a call that a boat struck the Brooklyn Bridge. There were 277 people on the boat. 27 people were removed for treatment,” as per FDNY’s X account.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams took to his X, “The Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtémoc lost power and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries”.

“Originally, we had a Brooklyn box out for folks in the water, for a boat in distress. Once the marine units arrived on scene, we knew immediately that we had a serious incident with a boat striking the bridge, so we had reports of people in the water. At that point coming down the FDR, we decided to have a dual command post, both on the Brooklyn side and the Manhattan side,” as per FDNY.

The marine units picked up Rescue 2 and Rescue 4 and brought them out to the vessel. They started to remove and treat the aids. They also brought EMS units out to the vessel to start to treat the more seriously injured people on that vessel, as per FDNY.

They brought them all here to Pier 16, where we set up a casualty collection point and an EMS staging area to assess the victims and send the most serious to the hospital right away. 

According to local media, the NYPD told residents to avoid the area of Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Seaport in Manhattan, and Dumbo in Brooklyn. “Expect heavy traffic and a large presence of emergency vehicles in the surrounding area,” police said on X.

In several eyewitness videos trending on social media, three of the ship’s masts were seen snapping and partially collapsing onto the bridge deck. The footage also showed heavy traffic on the bridge at the time of the impact. The vessel, flying a large Mexican flag in green, white, and red, then drifted toward the riverbank as bystanders rushed away from the shoreline.