The Mexican school ship Cuauhtémoc engaged in a training cruise with 277 people on board hit the Brooklyn bridge in New York, yesterday May 18, 2025. The impact caused the Breaking of all three trees of the sailing ship Which, falling on the bridge, caused 2 victims and 17 injured. On board there were 277 people at the overall and, if the accident had not happened, to the ship it would have reached Iceland. But what are the possible causes of this disaster? As we will see, at the moment there are still no certain answers – the investigations are still in progress – but according to the first reconstructions it seems that the most probable track is the one linked to a technical failure.
From a technical point of view, the Cuauhtémoc is a sailing ship that measures 90 meters in length for 44.8 meters high. From the first statements it emerged it seems that the boat was moving in the wrong direction due to a malfunction to the rudder. From here, impossibility Of change the route and the inevitable crash with the bridge. To this, however, there is also another element, i.e. the tug: It is not clear whether this second ship was guiding the sailing ship to correctly towards the exit from the port. In this case, his responsibilities will also be ascertained.
One last possible cause is that relating to conditions environmentalsince at the time of the accident it seems that they were there strong currents in the East River and winds with speed higher than 16 km/h. This combination of factors may have influenced the final trajectory of the vehicle, leading him to hit the symbol of the city.
At the moment the rescue and recovery operations are underway and, for this reason, the coast guard has delimited one Safety Zone Of 45 meters around the boat.
As anticipated, the team ofNTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) does not yet know with certainty what the causes of this disaster have been. Just in these hours, experts in nautical operations, naval engineering and bridges are brought together to New York to conduct an investigation into the safety of the school ship and understand exactly what happened.
