NTSB boards crippled Mexican ship after a fatal crash of the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC; Planning for repairs for repairs

Lower East Side, Manhattan (WABC) – The planning is in progress to repair a Mexican naval ship that crashed into Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend and killed two cadets.

On Tuesday, the NTSB investigators received permission from the Mexican government to rise the ship ship Cuauhtémoc into the Naval Historical Towers.

The investigators climbed into the crippled ship at 3 p.m., almost three days after the crash, and met with Mexican officials to collect critical information about the bridge strike.

They are determined to find out why the ship accelerated directly into the Brooklyn Bridge with 277 seafarers and naval officers on board. Nineteen were injured and two cadets were killed.

The investigators will examine ship mechanics – and they have a long list of people who have an interview.

They refused to speculate about the cause.

“We have to interview the Tug pilot, the Tugboat pilot, the port pilots, the captain of the ship, and there are many other occupation members we want to do, but we didn't have this chance,” said NTSB board member Michael Graham. “And again we do not determine a probable cause and we will not speculate about one because we have not yet collected enough information. We are only at the beginning when we collect the factual information.”

A spokesman for emergency management in NYC offered some updates from the ship, including details about damage and at the beginning of the repairs.

They said that the initial damage assessment is short of the completion, and “Marine vermeter and contractor, including specialists from Mexico, have accessed the ship and confirmed that the fuselage does not give any damage to the fuselage that would prevent its movement from the current pier with tractor aid.”

Nycem says that they monitor the weather exactly and the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday “probably require a break in the on-site work for security reasons”.

“Emergency planning is available to start mast repairs on Friday. The weather allows. Forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, the work will probably take a standstill,” said Nycem.

If this schedule applies, you say that the ship could be moved to a dry dock facility by Sunday. The long -term plan is expected to include initial repairs in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Cuauhtémoc is a Mexican naval training ship. It left South Street Seaport on Saturday evening with the crew members in the ceremonial formation on the shaft route.

The ship tracking data show that at 8:20 p.m. it has risen at barely two knots that were towed by a towing boat. But at 8:23 a.m. it was free and started to accelerate backwards. And a minute later it hit the bridge with 6.1 knots.

The investigators said that the currents were minimal and the winds were moderate, whereby questions were raised as to why the ship did not accelerate forward and was instead withdrawn into the bridge.

Mayor Eric Adams praised first aiders and the Mexican captain and the crew for the cooperation in the rescue efforts on Tuesday.

“We went to the ship, they were extremely receptive,” said Adams. “Everyone worked together. I can't praise our first aiders enough.”

The ship was supposed to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; And New York.

It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; And Aberdeen, Scotland, among other things, for a total of 254 days, 170 of them at sea.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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