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Mexican Navy ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge leaving two people dead

(www.theguardian.com)
127 points teleforce | 14 comments | 18 May 25 06:23 UTC | HN request time: 1.757s | source | bottom
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55555 ◴[18 May 25 07:24 UTC] No.44019621[source]▶
RIP to everyone who died. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but when you're standing on the mast, how can you not tell that you're about to collide with the bridge?
replies(3): >>44019628 #>>44021111 #>>44021140 #
ceejayoz ◴[18 May 25 07:26 UTC] No.44019628[source]▶
You can. You just can’t get down in time.
replies(1): >>44020015 #
1. brador ◴[18 May 25 09:07 UTC] No.44020015[source]▶
Why not just jump into the water?
replies(4): >>44020046 #>>44020143 #>>44020919 #>>44021238 #
2. prmoustache ◴[18 May 25 09:13 UTC] No.44020046[source]▶
The boat being wider than the mast, you have a near 100% probability of just hitting the deck even when propelling yourself.

Life is not a Super Hero action movie.

replies(1): >>44020152 #
3. eCa ◴[18 May 25 09:39 UTC] No.44020143[source]▶
An unprepared 40 meter jump onto water? Even if you manage to miss the boat, water is like concrete from that height.
replies(1): >>44020488 #
4. newsclues ◴[18 May 25 09:40 UTC] No.44020152[source]▶
You can jump away from the boat and land in water. And you can moved along the yards to get closer to the water.

But the tallest mast is 158 feet and that’s a big jump.

Source: was on a tall ship for a week, and done some cliff jumping

replies(1): >>44020472 #
5. squigz ◴[18 May 25 11:12 UTC] No.44020472{3}[source]▶
I think the top yards are not much, if any, wider than the deck, are they? Depending how quickly this happens, you may not have enough time to get across the yard and prepare for a 50m jump into water
replies(1): >>44021873 #
6. pmalynin ◴[18 May 25 11:18 UTC] No.44020488[source]▶
My back of the envelope math says velocity of about 28 m/s — call it an even 100km/h. Yeah seems kinda tough.
7. Spooky23 ◴[18 May 25 12:34 UTC] No.44020919[source]▶
Into East River currents?id rather take my chances than risk certain death hitting the deck or falling into the river and getting dragged under.
8. aetimmes ◴[18 May 25 13:21 UTC] No.44021238[source]▶
Jumping into water from roughly the height of the Brooklyn Bridge is generally what people do when they _want_ to end their own lives.
9. newsclues ◴[18 May 25 15:00 UTC] No.44021873{4}[source]▶
You see it’s going to happen and move towards the edge of the yards.

You then get a bit of horizontal momentum and jump away from the centre of the ship, giving you a few seconds to fall away and hopefully hit the water.

replies(2): >>44022247 #>>44023085 #
10. lesuorac ◴[18 May 25 15:54 UTC] No.44022247{5}[source]▶
How many people are jumping?

If only 2 died then you'd need a pretty high survival rate from jumping for it to be advantageous over sitting still.

replies(1): >>44023122 #
11. squigz ◴[18 May 25 17:47 UTC] No.44023085{5}[source]▶
So simple!

I wonder why those experienced sailors didn't think of that!

replies(1): >>44023197 #
12. ceejayoz ◴[18 May 25 17:52 UTC] No.44023122{6}[source]▶
You also look pretty silly if the ship manages to avoid collision, or just gently boops.

If you make it!

replies(1): >>44023176 #
13. squigz ◴[18 May 25 18:00 UTC] No.44023176{7}[source]▶
Your sailor buddies would never let you live that down.

They'd call you some silly nickname forever too

14. squigz ◴[18 May 25 18:03 UTC] No.44023197{6}[source]▶
In case anyone's curious, here's a picture of a couple sailors on a topyard [1] - I'm not sure you're easily getting any "horizontal momentum" on that thing while 50m in the air in choppy water. Nevermind the safety harnesses.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-detail-of-main-mast-of-tal...