WATCH | Mexican patrol boat 'Uxmal' loses control, crashes into docked ferry off Isla Mujeres
This comes just a year after a similar issue affected the Mexican Navy's sailing ship 'ARM Cuauhtémoc BE 01', which lost control and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge
This comes just a year after a similar issue affected the Mexican Navy's sailing ship 'ARM Cuauhtémoc BE 01', which lost control and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.
This comes just a year after a similar issue affected the Mexican Navy's sailing ship 'ARM Cuauhtémoc BE 01', which lost control and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.
This comes just a year after a similar issue affected the Mexican Navy's sailing ship 'ARM Cuauhtémoc BE 01', which lost control and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.
A Mexican patrol boat on Thursday lost control and crashed into a docked ferry off the Port of Isla Mujeres, causing significant damage to both vessels.
No injuries have been reported so far, according to a statement from the Mexican Navy (SEMAR Mexico), which said that Secretariat of the Navy is conducting the corresponding technical evaluations of both vessels and is maintaining coordination with the port authorities.
The Mexican Navy added that the Coastal Patrol ship Uxmal (PC-335) had been patrolling the the Isla Mujeres region, which falls under the Fifth Naval Region, when the disaster struck.
Amid a manoeuvre towards the pier, the vessel experienced a "possible failure in its clutch system", which led to it crashing into the Ro-Ro ferry Ultra Carga III, that had been docked there at the time.
The newspaper Reforma said that the collision was caused by a malfunction in the microcontroller of its computerised systems.
This malfunction then prevented the crew from performing any manoeuvres to steer or brake the vessel, causing the bow of the Uxmal to hit the side of the Ro-Ro ferry.
This comes just a year after a similar issue affected the Mexican Navy's triple-masted sailing ship ARM Cuauhtémoc BE 01, which lost control and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge on the evening of May 17, 2025.
Unlike the Thursday incident, this one led to at least two deaths, as well 19 injuries, and was classified by the US Coast Guard as a major marine casualty.
The vessel, had arrived in the US as part of a global tour, was headed an anchorage for fuelling before its scheduled voyage to Iceland when the tragedy struck.
Notably, it was never meant to travel under the Brooklyn Bridge in the first place, as its tallest mast measured about 50m—9m taller than the gap between the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge and the water below.
“They had some kind of mechanical problem. They lost power, so since they couldn’t use the rudder, they couldn’t manoeuvre,” an official had told CNN at the time, based on what the captain had said.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an initial analysis of the vessel’s exterior above the waterline identified scraped paint along the port (left) side, in addition to a deformed rudder post—it was positioned perpendicular to the vessel toward the port side.
The NTSB is yet to release its final report on the tragedy.