Ferry runs aground in New York City

A mechanical malfunction caused a ferry that travels from New Jersey to New York City to run aground in Brooklyn on Saturday, authorities said.

None of the 118 passengers were injured, authorities said, but one of seven crew members was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, New York Fire Department Deputy Assistant Chief Michael Gala said at a news conference.

First responders, including police and the U.S. Coast Guard, rushed to the ferry at the Bushwick Inlet in Brooklyn shortly after 4 p.m., he said. The Seastreak Commodore ferry, which travels along the East River from Highlands, New Jersey, to Manhattan, took on water following the grounding, Gala said.

"All of a sudden it swerved to the right and went into an inlet," an unnamed passenger told NBC New York. "The crew was telling us, 'Sit down sit down,' screaming, 'Sit down sit down.' We felt it run aground. The boat was shaking."

Seastreak, the company that operates the ferry, said in a statement that the 150-foot vessel's captain and crew warned passengers to sit down and hold on as the boat struck land.

Seastreak spokesman James Barker later said the ferry lost power and thus steering control, causing it to run aground.

He said water was being pumped out of the hull late Saturday. A salvage company was dispatched to the scene to determine how to move it, Gala said.

The U.S. Coast Guard will investigate what happened.