A tanker collided with the American Heritage, a riverboat operated by American Cruise Lines, on the Mississippi River in New Orleans on Friday afternoon, leaving the passenger vessel partly submerged. Authorities say no passengers or crew died, and all those aboard have been accounted for.
The collision happened at around 12:30pm local time. According to the primary reporting, the tanker Atlantic Asphalt struck the cruise ship while it was docked downtown. Mayor Helena Moreno described the outcome as a «miracle on the Mississippi», pointing to the absence of fatalities in an incident involving a large vessel and a passenger ship in a busy urban stretch of the river.
Thirty-two people were taken to local hospitals for treatment, and none of the injuries have been considered critical. The total number of people on board remains disputed. Reports cite 129 people aboard the riverboat, while one outlet puts the number rescued at about 180. The discrepancy has not been resolved in the available reporting, so the final passenger count is still unclear.
The American Heritage was left partially submerged after the impact. Some outlets have described the ship as capsized or sinking, but the precise condition of the vessel and the extent of its hull damage have not been confirmed. No details of salvage plans have been announced.
The tanker is reported to be roughly twice the length of the cruise ship, which measures about 81 metres. The size difference between the two vessels features in early accounts of the crash, though the reports do not establish how it bore on the collision itself. Contact between a moving or moored tanker and a docked passenger ship on a river of this kind raises questions about berthing and traffic management, but no official findings on those points have yet been published.
The cause of the collision has not been established, and investigators have not publicly assigned responsibility. No findings on how the tanker and the docked riverboat came into contact have been released. Further information on the cause, the state of both vessels, and the final casualty figures is expected as the response continues, and the reconciliation of the differing passenger counts will be central to establishing how many people were on the ship when it was struck.