May 20 (UPI) — The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating Saturday’s deadly crash of a Mexican Navy tall ship into New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, is focused on the ship’s guide tugboats and sudden acceleration.
The NTSB told reporters Monday that it was still working with the Mexican government and had not gained access yet to the military ship, called the Cuauhtémoc.
“We are optimistic we will have that access very soon,” said NTSB board member Michael Graham.
Investigators revealed they are looking into whether a New York tugboat, which was guiding the Mexican ship out of port as it headed to Iceland, may have released the vessel too quickly.
According to the New York Police Department, the ship lost power before striking the bridge. Video of the crash shows a tugboat racing toward the ship as it drifted in the wrong direction.
“We do have a bit of time where it was maintaining a constant speed of about 2 to 2.3 knots, and the speed began to increase,” said investigator-in-charge Brian Young. “That’s something we will be looking into as part of our engineering assessment.”
“At 8:24 p.m., the VHF radio broadcast was sounded requesting assistance from other tugboats in the area of the bridge,” Young said, adding that the ship had reached a speed of about 6 knots.
The collision — 45 seconds later — broke the ship’s three masts, which were 30 feet higher than the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge. There was no structural damage to the bridge, investigators confirmed.
The two crew members harnessed to the 147-foot masts for the ship’s traditional departure performance were killed. They were identified as América Yamilet Sanchez, 21, and Adal Jair Marcos, 22. More than 20 others were injured. None of the 277 crew members on board fell into the water.
The ship was taking part in a training cruise called the “Bicentennial of the Consolidation of the Independence of the Seas,” to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Mexican navy expelling Spain. The ship set sail on May 4 from Cozumel in the Yucatan Peninsula to New York. The 170-day cruise had been scheduled to stop at 22 ports in 15 countries.
