NYC Fleet Week sailors mourn victims of Mexican Navy crash in East River

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It was a somber start to Fleet Week, the annual event that brings naval ships and hundreds of sailors in crisp white uniforms to New York City’s shores.

The week is normally a joyous occasion where New Yorkers buy drinks for the visiting mariners as they take in the sights across the nation’s most important city. But this year’s event began with a vigil hosted by Mayor Eric Adams honoring the Mexican sailors killed when their towering sailboat struck the Brooklyn Bridge last week. This Sunday, members of the Mexican Navy will attend Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The bizarre tragedy was on the minds of many U.S. sailors who had just arrived in town.

“I have nothing but respect for them,” U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard Lt. Jonathan Hill said as he stood at the stern of a docked ship watching vessels float up the Hudson River.

Hill said he’d worked with the Mexican Navy on counternarcotics operations while assigned to the USS Omaha in San Diego.

“When we meet up with other countries that basically do the same job we do, just speak another language, it’s easy to find common ground in what we’re doing on a day-to-day basis,” Hill said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused last week’s deadly mishap. Officials believe the boat suffered a mechanical failure after it departed the harbor, which caused it to drift backwards before crashing into the bridge. (The bridge is OK, according to federal inspectors.)

The Cuauhtémoc’s crew was on a goodwill tour. When the ship struck the bridge, the sailors were in the midst of a high-flying display in which they stand on the ship’s masts.

The ship is still docked in Lower Manhattan. According to the city’s Office of Emergency Management, the U.S. Navy is arranging housing options at hotels across the city for the Mexican crew, another example of their continued partnership.

This year’s Fleet Week also brought a Canadian Navy ship to New York. North-of-the-border Cmdr. Richard Lane also paid respects to the fallen Mexican sailors.

“We’re all mariners,” he said. “We all serve at sea and that’s the common denominator you can see around us here today.”

The reverence for the fallen mariners only went so far, however. During a kickoff event at the stern of the USS Intrepid, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

“ Whether operating in the Red Sea, the Gulf of America, or the Indo-Pacific, our maritime forces are re-establishing deterrence and reviving our warrior ethos no matter where they serve,” Phelan said during a speech.

Mexicans have reacted to President Donald Trump’s renaming of the gulf with anger, ridicule and confusion.

And while the sailors kicked off Fleet Week reflecting on last week’s tragedy, many said their shared passion for the high seas allowed them to still enjoy the festivities.

“ It's going be a great time for sailors and Marines to connect with the community,” said Navy hull maintenance technician Ian Pool, who came from Norfolk, Virginia. “And I think it's a great time for people to understand what the Navy's about and what we do.”

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Chris, from Brooklyn

Why does the C train run every 15 minutes during rush hour through Brooklyn? Then I look over on the L train on the MTA App and it runs every 2-3 minutes. Does the MTA just think they can get away with terrible service to Black and brown working-class neighborhoods without anyone making a fuss about it?

Answer

The problems with the C train are twofold. The MTA schedules trains on the line every 10 minutes during rush hour. That’s not very frequent — but transit officials have long argued it’s all that’s required for the line because it shares tracks with the express A line in Brooklyn, as well as the E line on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. But C train service is made even worse whenever a train is canceled or delayed, which can turn a 10-minute headway into a 15- or 20-minute wait. Outdated tracks, signals and interlockings on the line make it one of the least reliable in the city.

As for the L line, the MTA runs more frequent service because there’s no other subway train that shares its tracks. That train also has modern signal technology, which allows the MTA to run L trains at faster speeds, closer together. The agency plans to upgrade the signals on nearly all of the C line over the next decade — but officials have made no promises to run more frequent service on the route.

The latest NYC area transit headlines

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New sidewalks on Fifth Avenue. Mayor Adams unveiled a plan yesterday to expand the sidewalks by 10 feet and take away traffic lanes on a 0.9-mile stretch of Fifth Avenue in Midtown. The changes, which transit and cycling advocates have criticized for eliminating a bus lane and failing to provide a dedicated bike lane, will cost an estimated $422 million.

Overall transit crime is at historic lows. But felony assaults, a violent category that often shapes public perception, have climbed, according to new NYPD crime data.

The “Rockaway Rocket” returns. The NYC Ferry system is expanding a popular program that allows riders to pay more — this year, it’ll be $12 — to reserve a seat to and from the Rockaways.

Lightening the load at Newark. The FAA has ordered airlines to temporarily reduce flights at Newark Airport through late October, citing ongoing runway construction, persistent staffing shortages and outdated air traffic technology.

Giving 34th Street the 14th Street treatment. City transportation officials want to ban most passenger vehicle traffic on 34th Street and turn it into a “busway.”

Peace on the Queensboro Bridge. The bridge’s newly separated pedestrian and cyclist paths officially opened Sunday after years of tension between both groups.

The NJ Transit strike is over. Normal service — which is what it is — resumed Tuesday after the transit agency reached a tentative deal with the striking locomotive engineers.

Listen to us talk about all this! Download our app and tune in to “All Things Considered” around 4 p.m. today.