00:00We want to first thank God that as of this time, the 277 passengers that were on board this Mexican vessel, they all were removed.
00:18We have 19 total injuries of four serious injuries at this time. We have been in communication with Mexican authorities and we're joined by the ambassador of Mexico, who's here as well.
00:36He immediately reached out and we were able to collaborate. We want to thank him for responding.
00:42I'm going to have our chief of operations give you an overview of what we have thus far.
00:49And then we were here from the ambassador from Mexico. Chief.
00:57Good evening, everyone. I'm Chief Wilson Arambliss from the special operations.
01:02Today, about approximately 20, 20 hours, the ship was departing from Pier 17, where it was heading out to sea.
01:15The pilot, the captain that was maneuvering the ship, lost, I guess, power of the ship and the current mechanical function caused the ship to go right into the pillar of the bridge, hitting the mass of the ship where there was a couple of sailors on top of it.
01:38These sailors who were injured as a result of the mass striking the bridge. Thank you.
01:49A DOT commissioner, just can you talk about the structure of the bridge at any point?
01:53So, as we're speaking right now, our head of the bridge division, Paul Schwartz, is in the scene.
02:03Information is that there was not any major damage to the bridge, but they continue to be in the scene.
02:08But so far, there's not a major damage to the Brooklyn Bridge.
02:13And the bridge is open at this time after our preliminary inspection.
02:18I'm going to turn it over to the ambassador for Mexico.
02:22Thank you very much, Mayor, for all your support.
02:26The most important thing now is the injured and they were taken to different hospitals.
02:33And we're looking very closely for the best treatment to get them.
02:38The Mexican Ministry of the Navy will search for every family of every one of the injured in order to give them a very detailed panorama of what's going on with every one of them.
02:57I want to thank the mayor for his support and we will continue very close to the families and to the injured in order to help them in any way we can.
03:11We're also joined by the acting Council General of Mexico as well that's here.
03:15So it is a unified effort to make sure that we look after all of those who were on the ship.
03:27And you can hear from the applause behind us.
03:29We want to thank the Mexican community for here appreciating our first responders.
03:34The police commissioner and her team immediately responded with FDNY Commissioner Tucker to have a coordinated effort.
03:41And we want to thank the Coast Guard and their effort as well.
03:45So the coordination was extremely important and it was executed to the best of our ability to minimize any loss of life.
03:55Our hearts go out to the family members and many family members are going to be traveling here from Mexico.
04:01We want to make sure we collaborate with the ambassador and his team to give them the proper information at the hospital.
04:09As I stated, 19 were injured, 4 were seriously injured.
04:15They were removed to Bellevue Hospital.
04:17A total of 277 were on board and they're properly being taken care of.
04:22We're open to a few questions at this time.
04:25Can you go ahead, wait a minute.
04:26Let's go for it.
04:26Can you go ahead.
04:27Mr. Mayor, we were told by some spectators who say they saw people go into the water.
04:32Is that true?
04:33And could you talk about what that public process looked like?
04:37Chief?
04:37I'm sorry.
04:40No, no one fell into the water.
04:42They were all hurt inside the ship.
04:44On top of the ship.
04:45Are any of these injuries life frightening?
04:50They're there.
04:51We want to classify them as seriously injured.
04:55We want the hospital personnel to carry out the determination of how the extent of those injuries.
05:02We don't want to put any fear in those who are waiting for their family members because names haven't been released.
05:09But right now, we're going to let the medical staff determine the extent of the injuries.
05:15Mayor Adams, could you just talk about it again, the purpose of this boat being in the water, what its intention was, and how it got taken off course?
05:26Where it was originally going?
05:27The ship, from what I was informed by the supervisors of the ship, it was disembarking and going to Iceland.
05:37So, it was authorized to be in these waters?
05:42Yes, correct.
05:44Yes.
05:44Anything else, sir?
05:46But it wasn't supposed to go under the broken bridge.
05:49I guess it was the pilot that is assigned to navigate, you know, the boat out of the water.
05:58I believe he lost, and there were some mechanical issues that probably caused the ship to hit the water.
06:05I'll just add that all of the information that the chief provided is preliminary and subject to change,
06:15and the NTSB is going to be doing a full investigation of what happened here.
06:19This was under the purview of the Mexican Navy.
06:21Is that fair to say?
06:23Is that a Mexican Navy boat?
06:25Yeah, the ship is a goodwill vessel that has been on the waters for more than 20 years, sharing Mexican culture.
