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CNN Live Event/Special

Mexican Navy Training Ship Strikes Brooklyn Bridge. Aired 10:30-11p ET

Aired May 17, 2025 - 22:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:30:05]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BEN HUNTE, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Ben Hunte.

We're beginning with breaking news out of New York. Authorities say a Mexican navy training ship has struck the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge. A source tells CNN 20 people were injured and three of them are in critical condition.

Police say the sailboat hit the bridge around bridge around 8:26 p.m. local time. Video shows the ship slowly moving toward the bridge before ramming into it. New York emergency officials said they're responding to the incident, adding that the situation is developing.

The Mexican navy shared a post on X, writing quote, the status of the personnel and material is under review by naval and local authorities who are providing support.

CNN's Mark Morales joins us live from New York with more now.

Mark, can you hear me? Are you there?

MARK MORALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, Ben, I can hear you.

HUNTE: Yes. So, what is the latest on the search and rescue? What's going on at the moment?

MORALES: Right. Well, law enforcement officials and emergency responders are heading down to the area. They're trying to sort things out. Here's the latest that I have from a source.

It's three that are critical and around 17 that are injured. The key here is that the 17 that are injured are, as of this moment, they're considered serious. But from what I'm being told, that might actually be downgraded as emergency responders start evacuating people and realizing how bad the injuries actually are.

And like you said, this video is pretty dramatic. You see the edge of the ship sort of hit the hit the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. And that's really where this whole thing started. And again, these numbers that, that I've gotten from, from a source, their preliminary meeting that as they start investigating, as they start going through all the details, the number might move. But that's what officials have to work with at the moment.

HUNTE: And what kind of challenges are emergency services dealing with on the -- at the scene at the moment?

MORALES: Well, with any one of these types of responses, it's okay, it's -- as soon as you find out what happens, its emergency responders deploying their unit. So, we know the NYPD harbor unit deployed because they always deploy to these types of situations. We know that emergency services are taking injured people to nearby hospitals, depending on how badly they are.

So the challenge is, getting through really thick, congested traffic, through really tight roadways, getting to the area, getting people assessing likely who's injured, how badly they're hurt and getting them the proper medical attention.

And then, of course, shortly thereafter, its really finding out what happened. What was the cause going through, figuring out everything from who was who was operating the vessel to why they were even -- even there in the first place, how long they've been there.

So, this is at the very, very beginning stages of a very big undertaking by emergency responders and law enforcement officials in the area.

HUNTE: Can you tell us a bit about the area that this happened in, near the Brooklyn bridge?

MORALES: Right. And this is especially on a day like today in New York, where it's one of the -- it's a really sunny day, great weather. Everybody's out there. So, you've got a lot of tourists flocking to the area. It's -- it's a really popular area, especially as the summer months hit here in New York.

So, everybody's out, everybody's going around. And you're talking about also a very important bridge here in the Brooklyn Bridge. I mean, this is -- it's a famed structure. Everybody knows it. And it's a major thoroughfare here in the city.

And, they just reopened it in two directions. I just saw this update for those coming from the city. So, whenever you have something that strikes the structure like that, it's a very big deal. And I don't know anybody who doesn't have this and have memories of incident that happened in another city or another bridge hit.

So, these are really, you know, it's a popular, congested tourist attraction area. And that's where this happened. So, it makes it even more critical for first responders to get there in a hurry.

HUNTE: We're seeing live -- we're not seeing live. We're seeing videos of the incident from videos on social media.

I'm just wondering, how could something like this have happened? Theres so many people that have stood there watching this occur, and it almost seems like it would have been too big to go under this bridge, right? Just looking at these videos, that just seems kind of obvious.

[22:35:03]

MORALES: Right. Right, right. And this is going to be the question that's on the minds of investigators as they get there, as they start going through this, right? It's that critical question how did this happen, right? Did anybody not know about restrictions? Did anybody not know about limits for these vessels and how they're supposed to go underneath there?

I mean, there's a -- there's a big after action report that has to happen now. And part of that is just from what your eyes tell you and from what my eyes tell me, it looks like something like that. But this is really what they have to go, and they have to go in and dig in and find out exactly why this happened because this is still a very ongoing situation. It just happened. So really, it could be any reason.

HUNTE: Yes. Just to recap, for those who are just joining us, we are covering breaking news out of New York. Authorities say a Mexican navy training ship has struck the bottom of the Brooklyn bridge. And a source is telling CNN, 20 people were injured and three of them are in critical condition.

What you're seeing on screen is we've got footage after the crash. We're seeing the ship underneath Brooklyn Bridge there. And we've got a number of videos from social media. I mean, my team was looking on social media, and we were seeing just after this happened that clearly there are so many people that were there recording this incident as it occurred.

And, Mark, I wonder if you could just tell me what happened after these videos ended. What was -- what was the scene? What was immediately happening on that scene?

MORALES: Well, whenever these things happen, right, you have multiple people that are watching. And as everything unfolds, you know, emergency responders are finding out quickly what's happening. I mentioned earlier about how important the Brooklyn Bridge is.

So, this is obviously an area that is monitored very closely by law enforcement in the area, both local and federal. So, once they know that something is up and something is triggered, you have law enforcement flooding the area, heading down to try and figure out exactly what happened. So, part of that is just -- is just the rush. It's the rush for first responders to get there. It's the rush for people that don't have anything to do with the situation, to clear a path and to make it so that they can get out of the way so people can actually get to the scene.

It just makes an area that's very congested, even more congested. It rattles people because it brings out their worst fears. You know, anybody who certainly has lived in New York for a long time, they can tell you stories about 9/11 or anything like that.

So, you have that to deal with. So there's many, many layers of something like this that happens, especially when you see these kinds of things unfold.

HUNTE: Yes. My team is telling me that the bridge is now reopened to traffic. What kind of assessments would have taken place for that to happen so soon after we're seeing these videos?

MORALES: Structural. There has to be some sort of determination by law enforcement, by anybody that's doing structure, by safety folks down there to make sure that this, that this is safe because that's really the most important thing. We, as you said, there's three critical. Theres 17 that are considered seriously hurt, but it's mitigating that and making sure that that number doesn't balloon because of any anything else, right?

And that up to and including the bridge itself. So, if they're opening it in both directions, that must indicate that they've already taken a look at this.

HUNTE: I'm going to put you on the spot.

MORALES: Very important key here.

HUNTE: Yes, I'm going to put you on the spot a bit. What kind of things would be in place to prevent something like this happening?

MORALES: Well, a lot of waterways. A lot of these have a lot of these structures have sort of limits. Right? Like, like the like the boat itself has to be of a certain height because you know that this is something that's been thought of, that's been considered, that has regulations because even the waterway underneath the bridge, everything about that, there's eyes on it from local and federal partners. Everybody's got a vested interest in something like this not happening.

So, there's tons of regulation, there's tons of eyeballs, there's tons of things to prevent this from happening. So, that's part of this after action report is finding out what went what went wrong here. Why did this ship try to slide in underneath the Brooklyn Bridge?

[22:40:03]

I mean, that's something that investigators are going to have to find out. And it could be -- it could be anything. It could be simple error.

I mean, this is something that's very key for officials to now figure out.

HUNTE: What can you tell us about the actual ship? I know earlier it was being reported, or at least we were seeing on social media as well, that it was a pirate ship. And now it appears there's a Mexican navy training ship. What can you tell us about it?

MORALES: So, I'm still waiting to hear back from sources to get a little more details on the ship itself. Just like you said, it's this. It's this. This training ship. It was in the area. You know, we're unsure yet as to how long this is in the area. You

have to wonder how familiar they are with the ship or with the waterways. Just how much they actually know about any of these rules and regulations.

But again, this goes back to what investigators are going to start doing now because -- and that's that sort of two headed response. You have emergency responders trying to treat the wounded, and then you have investigators that are trying to preserve information so they can figure out quickly what went wrong.

HUNTE: Okay. Well, for now, Mark Morales, thank you for joining me. I appreciate it.

MORALES: You got it, Ben. Anytime.

HUNTE: Okay. Well, stay right here with CNN. We'll be right back after this short break.

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[22:45:27]

HUNTE: We're following breaking news out of New York. Authorities say a Mexican navy training ship has struck the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge. A source tells CNN 20 people were injured and three of them are in a critical condition.

These are pictures as New York emergency crews responded to the crash. You're seeing some footage from social media just there as well. All lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge were briefly closed in both directions after the incident, but they have now reopened.

We're going to talk more about this and get some more information from Juliette Kayyem, the CNN senior national security analyst, joining us live.

Thank you so much for being with me. What can you tell us more about? What is going on at the moment? We're seeing a lot of videos on social media. What's going on now?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Okay, so we know that there was a search and rescue, which is essentially you're trying to find live people who may have been in the water. We do know, at least from earlier reporting, that some number of people either were sort of, you know, fell off, given the impact of, of, of the. Of the sort of crash into the bridge or jumped off. because they were fearful of what was going to happen to the boat. If all the people are accounted for, then you simply go basically, you go from search and rescue to recovery, which is to protect the boat for in terms of investigation, ensure that there's no more damage to the Brooklyn bridge.

And so, this will -- you know, this is this is horrible. It seems very unique. But these kinds of incidents happen enough that between the New York harbor police, the New York police department, the coast guard and any other assets that may have been nearby, it sounds like the worst is over. And now it's going to be the investigation.

HUNTE: I wonder, what do we know about who was on this boat? Because there's a lot of people on this boat, and there's a lot of footage from social media that were seeing with people just standing, watching this boat as well. It's kind of -- kind of mind blowing that everyone saw this occur.

KAYYEM: Yeah. So, this is one of these party boats, a sort of a Mexican pirate boat. I don't know, we don't know yet. Sort of who owns it or I don't know quite yet who owns it.

And my -- I was just looking on social media, it appears that lots of people knew this bad thing was about to happen. Everyone turns on their cameras and sees that the that the ship is not going to make the distance. What the -- what the boat hit in terms of the mass, were not quite clear. Was there a -- it looked like there was something underneath the Brooklyn bridge. Maybe they were doing rehabilitation or other work to the bridge.

The east, I should say. This river is a very, very sort of treacherous river in terms of its tides and in terms of sort of the sweep of the waters. I am speculating just based on what I know right now, that this boat never intended to go under the Brooklyn Bridge, that there may have been some loss of functionality. It wasn't that they thought they could clear it, but that that because of currents, and it was a very, very strong, windy day today on the east coast because of currents that the boat did not intend to go under the bridge, but to stay in between the bridges, and then found itself unable to stop or turn around.

HUNTE: What kind of challenges will emergency services face at that scene right now?

KAYYEM: Yeah. Well -- so, I mean, thankfully it appears that all people are accounted for. So that's your first challenge, which is who is on the boat. Do we know who was on the boat? I mean, lots of people join these party boats. Maybe they don't tell friends. Is there a -- is there a specific sign-up sheet? You know, a friend of a friend tells someone, we know what these boats are like.

So, it's just ensuring that everyone is accounted for in terms of who was on the boat. If that then happens, then the challenge is, of course, immediate medical assistance --

HUNTE: We're going to go to a live news conference now.

KAYYEM: Okay.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY: We want to first thank God that at this time of the 277 passengers that were on board this Mexican vessel, they all were removed. We have 19 total injuries, four serious injuries at this time.

[22:50:05]

We have been in communication with Mexican authorities, and we're joined by the ambassador of Mexico, who's here as well. He immediately reached out and we were able to collaborate. We want to thank him for responding.

I'm going to have our chief of operation give you an overview of what we have thus far, and then we will hear from the ambassador from Mexico.

Chief?

CHIEF WILSON ARAMBOLES, SPECIAL OPERATIONS, NYPD: Good evening, everyone. I'm chief Wilson Aramboles from the special operations.

Today, about approximately 2020 hours, the ship was departing from Pier 17, where it was heading out to sea. The pilot, the captain that was maneuvering the ship lost, I guess, power of the ship and the current mechanical function caused the ship to go right into the pillar of the bridge, hitting the mast of the ship where there was a couple of sailors on top of it. These sailors were injured as a result of the mast striking the bridge.

Thank you.

ADAMS: DOT commissioner, just can you talk about the structure of the bridge in any report?

YDANIS RODRIGUEZ, NYC DOT COMMISSIONER: So, as we're speaking right now, our head of the bridge division, Paul Schwartz (ph), is in the scene. Information is that there was not any major damage to the bridge, but they continue to be in the scene. But so far, there is not a major damage of the Brooklyn Bridge.

ADAMS: And the bridge is open at this time, after our preliminary inspection.

I'm going to turn it over to the ambassador of Mexico.

ESTEBAN MOCTEZUMA BARRAGAN, MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Thank you very much, Mayor, for all your support. The most important thing now is the injured. And they were taken to different hospitals. And we're looking very closely for a -- the best treatment to get them.

The Mexican ministry of the navy will search for every family of every one of the injured in order to give them a very detailed, panorama of what's going on with every one of them.

I want to thank the mayor for his support and we will continue very close to the families and to the injured in order to help them in any way we can.

ADAMS: Thank you.

And we're also joined by the acting consul general of Mexico as well that's here.

So, it is a unified effort to make sure that we look after all of those who were on the ship. And you can hear from the applause behind us. We want to thank the Mexican community for here appreciating our first responders. The police commissioner and her team immediately responded, with FDNY Commissioner Tucker to have a coordinated effort. And we want to thank the coast guard and their effort as well.

So, the coordination was extremely important. And it was executed to the best of our ability to minimize any loss of life. Our hearts go out to the family members, and many family members are going to be traveling here from Mexico. We want to make sure we collaborate with the ambassador and his team to give them the proper information.

At the hospital, as I stated, 19 were injured, for was seriously injured. They were removed to Bellevue hospital. A total of 277 on board, and they're properly being taken care of.

We're open to a few questions at this time.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead.

REPORTER: Mr. Mayor, we were told by some spectators who say they saw people fall into the water. Is that true? And can you talk about what that recovery process look like?

ADAMS: Chief.

ARAMBOLES: I'm sorry. No. No one fell into the water. They were all hurt inside the ship, on top of the ship.

REPORTER: Are any of these injuries are life-threatening?

ADAMS: There -- we wouldn't classify them as seriously injured. We want the hospital personnel to carry out the determination of how the extent of those injuries. We don't want to put any fear in those who are waiting for their family members, because names haven't been released.

But right now, we're going to let the medical staff determine the extent of the injuries.

REPORTER: Mayor Adams, could you just talk about, again the purpose of this boat being in the water, what its intention was and how it got taken off course, like where was originally going?

[22:55:06]

ARAMBOLES: The ship from what I was informed by the supervisors of the ship, it was heading, it was disembarking and going to Iceland -- to Iceland.

REPORTER: So, it was authorized to be in these waters?

ARAMBOLES: Yes. Correct. Yes.

Anything else, sir?

REPORTER: Well, it wasn't supposed to go under the Brooklyn Bridge.

ARAMBOLES: I guess it was the pilot that is assigned to navigate, you know, the boat out of the water. I believe he lost -- there was some mechanical issues that probably caused the ship to hit the water.

JESSICA TISCH, NYPD COMMISSIONER: I'll just add -- I'll just add that all of the information that the chief provided is preliminary and subject to change. And the NTSB is going to be doing a full investigation of what happened here.

REPORTER: This was under the purview of the Mexican navy. Is that fair to say? Mexican navy boat?

BARRAGAN: Yeah, the ship is goodwill vessel that has been on the waters for more than 20 years, sharing Mexican culture. Its name is Cuauhtemoc, and this is one of the trips that, the ship did. It does. It came from Cozumel and was heading to Iceland.

REPORTER: What were the people on the boat doing? Were they, you know --

BARRAGAN: Well, they sailed. It's a sailboat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you guys so much. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

HUNTE: So it was just a press conference there with the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. We learned quite a bit of information, actually. We learned that there are 19 injured, four seriously injured. We learned that there were sailors on the masts that we saw go into the bridge, but nobody fell into the water. Also, there is no structural damage to Brooklyn Bridge.

Well, let's go back to Juliette Kayyem, who's going to join us to speak more about this?

From that press conference. Juliette, did you learn anything more that we can speak on here?

KAYYEM: Yes. I mean, I think why did it happen? At least what we know so far. And there'll be a review and investigation that two things simultaneously happened. One is that the ship lost its capacity to steer itself. We don't know if its electricity or generator or what went down.

And the second is what we were talking about before, which is the currents in the river, which are sort of historically very, very difficult to maneuver. And so, if you don't have power and the currents are going in such a way, you're just going to you could very likely hit something. I think the most important, you know, the other thing is, of course, no loss of life yet. Of course, there's injuries. But that's -- that's sort of good news given how many people were on the ship.

And then finally, no structural damage to the Brooklyn Bridge. Look, what New Yorkers have to wake up tomorrow and use this bridge. It was closed down for a little bit to assess structural damage.

You could tell from the pictures that this was probably -- this was not a big hit for the Brooklyn Bridge and of course, ruined the ship because it mostly hit the mast. So that's good news in terms of just getting the city running. If you had to pull Brooklyn Bridge offline, it would put much of the city to a standstill.

HUNTE: And can you just tell us what more do we know about those that are actually on this ship? Because he said there were, what, 200 -- 200 something people that were there.

KAYYEM: So, this looks -- unlike the -- unlike the looks of it, this looks like a more serious sort of adventure than may look on appearance. It's heading to Iceland, so it's clearly --it's a regulated ship in terms of its going into international waters. Thats why they know who was on the ship, because passports would have to be shared and taken.

So, this is -- this is probably one of those, you know, sort of party, party overnight. And for the days ahead until you get to Iceland. And so --

HUNTE: Yes. Juliette, we're just going to -- we're just going to go to a break. But we'll be back with you if we can, if that's okay. Thank you.

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