A Mexican Navy tall ship named the Cuauhtémoc infamously crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge last month, killing two and injuring dozens more in a wild scene witnessed by numerous onlookers. The incident raised many questions, but a new report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) actually raises more, if anything.
For instance, why was the ship moving backward?
The Mexican navy tall ship that smashed into the Brooklyn Bridge in May was inexplicably sailing backwards — and picked up speed — before the fatal collision, according to officials.
The preliminary NTSB report released Monday leaves more questions than answers on the crash that killed two crewmembers and left 19 other people injured, including why the docking pilot’s orders to stop the boat didn’t have any effect.
Here’s where it got weird:
Between 8:20 p.m. and 8:22 p.m., the ship moved backward and away from Pier 17. Once the ship was clear, the docking pilot gave a stop command and then ordered the ship to move forward very slowly.
As a tugboat pushed against the front right side of the ship, the back of the vessel began to swing toward the Brooklyn Bridge. The tugboat, following orders from the docking pilot, stopped pushing, backed away and tried to move toward the back of the ship.
In the final minute before impact, between 8:23 p.m. and 8:24 p.m., the ship's backward speed nearly doubled. When the ship hit the bridge, it was moving backward at 5.9 knots, which is more than 6 mph.
Sadly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, the Mexican Navy is uninsured and New York will be responsible for its own repairs. pic.twitter.com/GoQR9cxnsR
— Flappr (@flapprdotnet) May 18, 2025
Related: Update on Tall Ship That Hit Brooklyn Bridge: 2 Killed, at Least 22 Injured
Breaking: Tall Ship Crashes Into Brooklyn Bridge, Multiple People Injured
Left unclear in the report is what exactly happened after a tugboat captain tried to supervise the situation:
The docking pilot gave astern commands to the captain on the conning deck, which were acknowledged by the captain, translated to Spanish, and relayed to another crewmember on the deck below, outside of the navigation bridge. This crewmember then relayed the orders to crewmembers within the navigation bridge, where commands were inputted.
Then things took a turn for the worse:
Starting at 2024:42, the upper sections of all three masts of the Cuauhtémoc contacted the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge, one by one. The mizzen mast contacted the bridge first, followed by the main mast, and then the foremast. The mizzen mast and main mast also struck the bridge’s no. 3 traveler (a moveable maintenance platform hung from traveler rails beneath the bridge deck that was used for workers to access areas of the bridge), which was positioned at its docking location near the Brooklyn Tower. The vessel was traveling about 5.9 knots astern when it contacted the bridge.
The NTSB report unfortunately doesn’t answer how things could have gone so horribly wrong. Luckily, the Brooklyn Bridge did not sustain major damage. The pilot and co-pilot were tested for alcohol and drugs, but the report came back clean.
Why was it sailing backward at more than six mph? For now, at least, we don’t have an answer.
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