NEW ORLEANS (The Thursday Times) — A tanker struck a river cruise boat docked on the Mississippi River in New Orleans on Friday, tipping the vessel on to its side and throwing people into the water, but everyone on board was accounted for, the city’s mayor said.
Thirty-two people were taken to local hospitals, none with critical injuries, Mayor Helena Moreno told a news conference. Thirty of them came from the cruise boat, mostly with bumps and bruises, and two were harbour police officers hurt during the rescue, according to reports. Moreno called it “a miracle on the Mississippi”.
The Atlantic Asphalt, a 160-metre tanker registered in the Marshall Islands, hit American Cruise Lines’ paddlewheel boat American Heritage at about 12.30pm local time (23:30 PKT), the Port of New Orleans said. The boat had docked about two hours earlier and passengers were disembarking.
Moreno said the tanker “lost control and collided into the cruise ship”. Video from the scene showed the tanker striking the side of the five-deck boat, which slowly rolled on to its side. “Fifteen minutes from impact to where it rolled over,” one witness, Jamie Holford, told local television.
Rescuers pulled more than a dozen people in life jackets from the river, where the water was about 19C, and the river was closed to shipping.
Cause not known
Officials did not say what caused the crash. Investigators will look at whether the tanker lost steering, Moreno said, though that had not been confirmed. Martin Davies, a maritime law expert at Tulane University, told reporters that videos of the crash suggested some kind of catastrophic system failure on the tanker.
American Cruise Lines said guests and crew had been evacuated and that it was “deeply concerned for everyone involved”. The American Heritage, built in 2015, was finishing an eight-day cruise to destinations in Louisiana and Mississippi.
