Mexican ship in fatal crash accelerated before hitting Brooklyn Bridge

New York: A Mexican naval ship in the East River accelerated suddenly in the wrong direction before slamming its masts into the Brooklyn Bridge in a crash that killed two crew members, federal transportation officials said Monday.

The ship, the Cuauhtémoc, was moving at a speed of about 2.3 knots after shoving off from a lower Manhattan pier Saturday night with a tugboat's help, Brian Young of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference.

The 300-foot long ship, which had 277 people on board, maintained that pace for "a bit of time" before "the speed began to increase," said Young, the investigator leading the safety board's inquiry into the crash. The Cuauhtémoc's speed had risen to 6 knots when it hit the bridge less than five minutes after leaving shore, he said.

It was unclear what caused the sudden acceleration, Young said. But it will be among the issues investigators focus on in the course of an examination that is in its earliest stages and that could take up to two years to complete.

"This is a start of a long process," Michael Graham, an NTSB board member, said at the news conference, noting that the agency expected to issue a preliminary report of its findings within 30 days. "We will not be drawing any conclusions. We will not speculate."

Graham said agency officials were working with their Mexican counterparts to gain access to the ship so that investigators could inspect the engine, interview crew members still on board and recover any data recorders the vessel may have. The damaged vessel is now docked at Pier 36 in Manhattan.

"We are optimistic that we will have that access very soon," Graham said.

The Cuauhtémoc left Acapulco on April 6 on a goodwill tour with stops that included New York, Jamaica, Cuba, Barbados, Scotland, Spain and London, according to the Mexican navy. After leaving Manhattan, its next scheduled stop was to be Reykjavík, Iceland.

Young offered the following timeline of the events surrounding the crash:

At 8:20 p.m. Saturday, the Cuauhtémoc, with the tugboat's assistance, backed away from Pier 17, where it had been docked since arriving in New York on May 13. The plan was to sail south down the East River and out of New York Harbor, with a stop along the Brooklyn waterfront to refuel before heading out to sea.

A preliminary weather report indicated dusk conditions, westerly winds of about 10 knots and a current of about 0.3 knots in the direction of the bridge.

But rather than sailing south after leaving the pier, Young said, "the vessel's astern motion and speed increased" as it headed backward toward the bridge. At around 8:24 p.m., a radio call went out seeking assistance from other tugboats in the area.

Two other requests for help soon followed, and at 8:24 and 45 seconds, the Cuauhtémoc's masts struck the underside of the bridge. At 8:27, the ship came to a stop. Three minutes later, emergency workers reached the scene.

Among those whom investigators plan to talk to are the harbor pilot, whose role was to help the Cuauhtémoc navigate New York Harbor's tricky tides and currents and commercial ship traffic, and representatives of the tugboat company.

"We haven't had a chance to do any interviews at this point," Graham said.

A video obtained by The New York Times shows the tugboat, operated by McAllister Towing, alongside the Cuauhtémoc as the ship backs into the river. The tug appears to stay near the ship and to help it into position with the bow aimed south, its intended direction.

Before long, though, the ship begins moving in the wrong direction, The tug races along next to it, perhaps trying to cut it off before its roughly 160-foot masts hit the bridge, which has a navigational clearance of 127 feet.

McAllister Towing said in a statement Sunday that it was "fully cooperating with the relevant authorities."

Salvatore R. Mercogliano, an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, told the Times that his review of video of the Cuauhtémoc's movements before the crash appeared to show the ship giving off a wake. That could suggest the propellers might have been running in reverse and pushing the ship toward the bridge faster.

Mexican officials identified the two crew members who died 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, officials said.

Graham said at the news conference that 179 crew members had returned to Mexico and that 94 remained with the ship. Two crew members were still hospitalized in New York, officials said.

Safety board inspectors, working with the city's Department of Transportation, had determined that the crash had not caused "significant structural damage" to the bridge, Graham said.