Two young sailors who lost their lives in the mechanical failure and crash of the Mexican Navy ship Cuauhtémoc into the Brooklyn Bridge have been identified as América Yamilet Sánchez and Adal Jair Marcos, Mexican authorities confirmed Sunday.
The vessel — which serves as a school ship for cadets — was departing for Reykjavik, Iceland when it lost power around 8:30 p.m. Saturday and drifted into the bridge, snapping all three masts, killing Sánchez and Marcos and injuring 19 others.
“América wasn’t just a cadet. She was also an outstanding swimmer, a young woman full of light, commitment and dreams,” according to the Mexican outlet Journada. “Hours before the accident, she shared with emotion an image of the ship that would take her to her final voyage, not knowing that this postcard would be her farewell.”
Sánchez, from Veracruz, would have turned 21 in June. Marcos, 22, was originally from Oaxaca. Both had spent the past nine months of their lives on the training ship.
The Cuauhtemoc is seen moored at Pier 36 in Manhattan on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / )
Sanchez’s great aunt demanded answers to the reason for the accident.
“Justice, if there were failures by the Mexican Navy or if there were failures by the United States, let there be justice and her body immediately, here with her family, and let it not be forgotten,” Sánchez’s great aunt María del Rosario Hernández Jacome said.
There were 277 personnel on the ship, including 147 cadets. Among the injured were 11 crew members who “are diagnosed as delicate” and nine more are “stable,” according to a statement from the Mexican Navy.
