NEW YORK, NY (Headline News USA) (Copyright © 2025) — A Mexican Navy training ship lost power Saturday night and drifted backward into the Brooklyn Bridge, snapping its masts and killing two people in a crash that left New Yorkers stunned on the East River.

The Cuauhtémoc had just left Pier 17 around 8:20 p.m. when it began reversing slowly. Witnesses said the ship didn’t look right — too close to the bridge, moving the wrong way.

Then it hit.

Three masts — each towering nearly 160 feet — cracked against the underside of the bridge. Sailors were still up in the rigging. Some fell. Others hung on.

“The boat was coming under the bridge… people were falling off of the boat sails,” said one witness, Elijah West, speaking to The New York Post. “It was crazy… We were standing under the bridge and we all started running” The Sun.

Screams. Chaos. Sirens. Then the emergency boats came in fast.

There were 277 people onboard. At least 19 were injured, including four in critical condition. Two later died from their injuries, Mayor Eric Adams confirmed in a post on X. “The Cuauhtémoc lost power and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge,” he wrote People.

Cadets — many of them still in training — were among those on deck when it happened. The ship had been docked in New York earlier that week, open for public tours. It was supposed to leave quietly. It didn’t.

The Mexican Navy later confirmed the crash in a statement, calling it a “mishap” during a sailing maneuver. The rest of the training cruise has been suspended. The ship was part of an annual post-graduation voyage from the Mexican port of Acapulco.

Three staging areas were set up: Pier 16, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Marine 6. Rescue teams pulled the injured from the boat and ferried them to waiting ambulances. NYPD divers were also on scene.

One video, shared on X, shows pieces of the mast crashing down. Sailors can be seen in the tangled lines. Another shows people on the bridge scattering as the ship drifts in.

Despite the impact, the bridge itself held. Inspectors from the Department of Transportation checked the structure and gave the all-clear. No major damage. Traffic resumed later that night.

The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating. Early reports suggest the ship’s engines may have jammed in reverse, causing the crash. Police confirmed the Cuauhtémoc was supposed to be heading out to sea — not toward the bridge.

As of midnight, the battered ship was being towed back up the East River by tugboats. Its masts, broken and listing, scraped beneath the Manhattan Bridge before docking.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum offered condolences on X. “Our solidarity and support go out to their families,” she wrote.

No one went overboard. But plenty of people came away shaken.

Image Credit: Cuauhtémoc by Cityswift is licensed under CC BY 2.0