Mexico’s navy chief has said that the pilot manning its training ship which crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday night was under the control of New York authorities.
“The ship has a training mission and is also an ambassador. Therefore, all its voyages are carried out in accordance with international standards,” Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles said at a press conference on Tuesday.
He added that with such a large ship in particular journeys from the harbor “must be controlled by a specialized harbor pilot from the New York government.”
The Cuauhtémoc ship had 180 people on board when it collided with the bridge spanning the East River on Saturday evening, resulting in two deaths and 22 injuries. Video showing the ship’s masts collapsing during crash was taken by onlookers in New York’s Dumbo neighborhood, and quickly spread on social media.
Morales Ángeles told reporters: “The entire maneuver the ship made, from leaving the dock to the moment of the collision, was under the control of the pilot.”
He added that the harbor pilot decides how the maneuver is carried out “and what resources will be used to assist,” Mexican outlet ABC Noticias reported.
Newsweek contacted U.S. agency the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the New York Mayor’s Office and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for further information and comment out of normal office hours on Wednesday.
Morales Ángeles said the pilot of the vessel had only 80 to 90 seconds to avoid impact.
“That’s why we can’t speculate on whether the resources were used properly,” he said. “What we can say is that he had little time to act, because the distance from where the ship was docked to the bridge was very short.”
“We we can’t say, and we have to analyze whether that time was sufficient given the wind, current, and distance conditions,” he added.
This is a developing story and more information will be added.
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