A Mexican naval ship in the East River suddenly accelerated in the wrong direction before crashing its masts against the Brooklyn bridge, and caused a collision in which two members of the crew died, federal transport officials said Monday.
The Cuauhtémoc Sailing School ship was traveling at a speed of about 2.3 knots after sailing from a Lower Manhattan dock on Saturday night with the help of a tugboat, said Brian Young, of the National Board of Transport Security (NTSB, in English), at a press conference.
The ship about 90 meters long, which had 277 people on board, maintained that rhythm for “a while” before “the speed began to increase,” said Young, the researcher who directs the investigation of the Security Board on the accident. He said that the Cuauhtémoc speed had increased to six knots when he crashed against the bridge less than five minutes after leaving the shore.
It was not clear what caused the sudden acceleration, said Young. But it will be one of the issues on which researchers focus on the course of an examination that is in their early stages and that could take up to two years to complete.
“This is the beginning of a long process,” Michael Graham, a member of the NTSB Board of Directors, said in the press conference, and noted that the agency hoped to publish a preliminary report of its conclusions within 30 days. “We will not draw conclusions. We will not speculate.”
Graham said agency officials were working with their Mexican counterparts to obtain access to the ship, so that researchers could inspect the engine, interview crew members who are still on board and recover the data registrars that the ship could have. The damaged ship is now docked at Muelle 36 of Manhattan.
“We are optimistic and we believe that we will soon have that access,” said Graham.
The Cuauhtémoc sailed from Acapulco on April 6 on a goodwill tour with scales planned in New York, Jamaica, Cuba, Barbados, Scotia, Spain and London, according to the Mexican Navy. After leaving Manhattan, his next scheduled scale was going to be Reykiavik, Iceland.
Young offered the following chronology of events around the accident:
At 20.20 on Saturday, the Cuauhtémoc, with the help of the tugboat, backed away to get away from dock 17, where he had been docked since his arrival in New York on May 13. The plan was to navigate south on the East River and leave the port of New York, with a stop at the Brooklyn dock to repost before the sea.
A preliminary weather report indicated the conditions of the sunset, western winds of about 10 knots and a current of about 0.3 knots in the direction of the bridge.
But instead of navigating south after leaving the dock, said Young, “the stern movement and the speed of the boat increased” when it was heading back to the bridge. Around 20:24, a radio call was issued requesting help to other tugs in the area.
Soon other help requests followed, and at 20.24 and 45 seconds, the masts of Cuauhtémoc hit the bottom of the bridge. At 20.27, the ship stopped. Three minutes later, emergency workers arrived at the scene.
Among the people with whom the researchers plan to speak are the port pilot, whose function was to help Cuauhtémoc navigate the complicated tides and currents of the port of New York and traffic of commercial ships, and representatives of the tugboat company.
“We have not been able to do any interview,” said Graham.
A video obtained by The New York Times It shows the tugboat, operated by Mcallister Towing, next to the Cuauhtémoc while the ship goes to the river. The tugboat seems to remain close to the ship and help it be placed in position with the bow oriented to the south, its planned address.
However, soon, the ship begins to move in the wrong direction. The tugboat moves quickly next to him, perhaps trying to cut his pace before his masts almost 50 meters high clash against the bridge, which has a free space of navigation of almost 40 meters.
Mcallister Towing said in a statement on Sunday that he was “cooperating fully with the relevant authorities.”
Salvatore R. Mercogliano, attached professor at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, told the Times that his video review of the Cuauhtémoc movements before the accident seemed to show that the ship issued a trail. That could suggest that propellers could have been working in reverse and pushing the ship to the bridge more quickly.
The Mexican authorities identified the two dead crews as América Yamileth Sánchez Hernández, a 20 -year -old cadet, and Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos, a 23 -year -old sailor. At least 22 other people aboard the ship were injured, authorities said.
Graham said at the press conference that 179 crew members had returned to Mexico and that 94 were still on the ship. Two crew members were still hospitalized in New York, authorities said.
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The inspectors of the Security Board, in collaboration with the City Transport Department, determined that the accident had not caused “significant structural damage” on the bridge, said Graham.