A Mexican navy ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday night, killing two sailors and injuring 17 others, lost power, officials told Newsday.

"The ship was moving down toward Bay Ridge, where it was going to anchor and refuel," New York City Office of Emergency Management Zach Iscol said Sunday.

"It reportedly lost power, lost steerage, then because of the current ended up under the Brooklyn Bridge."

The tall ship, which had 277 sailors on board, departed from Pier 17 on Saturday before it struck the Brooklyn Bridge at around 8:30 p.m. Video from the incident shows the training vessel's masts sed snapping from the impact.

Two sailors remain hospitalized in critical condition, according to the NYPD.

By Sunday morning, several sailors climbed the masts to repair the rigging as officials toured the ship deck.

Ishmael Alvarado, who lives by Pier 35 and served in the U.S. Marines for eight years, said he saw the ship docked for several days before it crashed on Saturday.

"My son told me, ‘Look out the window,’ and I thought it was a movie being filmed," he said.

"Seeing the sailors dangling there ... It was sad."

The cause of the collision was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said.

However, the NYPD Special Operations Division, the FDNY, the U.S. Coast Guard and the city’s Department of Transportation led an investigation revealing the mechanical breakdown. It is unclear which of those agencies, or the NTSB, will lead the investigation moving forward, according to Iscol.

“I think the focus, like any major marine casualty, is going to be the man, the machine and the environment,” said Kevin Mahoney, New York City maritime lawyer with Kreindler & Kreindler. “I think the [NTSB,] in conjunction with the United States Coast Guard and potentially the Mexican government, will be looking at what operational issues might have led to the allision.”

Allision is the maritime term for a collision between a vessel and a dock, bridge or pier.

“They'll be talking to the captain of the vessel, the pilot of the vessel,” Mahoney said. “They'll be interviewing them and to see was there a fuel issue that could have caused the engine to fail? Was there a mechanical issue? They'll be looking into the maintenance history of the vessel, and then the environment. They'll leave no stone unturned in the investigation.”

Mahoney’s firm led the litigation involving the container ship that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March, 2024, causing the span to crumble.

In a scene captured in eyewitness videos, the ship, called the Cuauhtémoc, could be seen traveling swiftly in reverse toward the 142-year-old bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River. Then, its three masts struck the bridge's span and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving.

Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8:20 p.m. collision. No one on the bridge was reported injured.

The vessel, which was flying a giant Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted into a pier on the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away.

Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, remarkably, no one fell into the water, officials said.

Jessica Anaya traveled from Rhode Island to attend a departure ceremony on the ship before it embarked on its route to Iceland.

“It was an honor for us to be there and see our people doing this,” said Anaya, who was born in Mexico, adding that she boarded the ship to meet the sailors.

“They were just very happy,” she said through tears. “Seeing how it ended up is heartbreaking.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed regret for the loss of the two crew members.

"Our solidarity and support go out to their families," Sheinbaum said on X.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (490-meter) main span supported by two masonry towers. More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross every day, according to the city’s transportation department. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

With The Associated Press