American Heritage cruise ship tanker collision New Orleans, Digi Mart USA News (New Orleans, Louisiana): A tanker collided with the American Heritage river cruise boat docked near the port of New Orleans on Friday, leaving the vessel partially submerged. More than 100 people were rescued after passengers and crew plunged into the Mississippi River as the ship took on water and began to topple over.
New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said at a news conference that zero people were unaccounted for. She said 32 people were taken to hospital, none with critical injuries, and that uninjured people were brought to a nearby auditorium where cruise officials conducted a roll call.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, wrote on social media that every asset was helping rescue missing passengers and that the department was coordinating closely with state officials.
Local media reported that at least 14 people had been rescued from the water, according to CBS News and AP reporting.
The Advocate newspaper, citing unnamed Port of New Orleans officials, reported that 129 passengers were aboard the American Heritage when it was hit by the tanker Atlantic Asphalt at about 12:30pm local time. American Cruise Lines, which says on its website that the ship was built in 2015 with capacity for 150 people, said in an emailed statement that it was coordinating with the U.S.
Coast Guard and local authorities and that guests and crew had been evacuated.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it planned to investigate the crash, although members were initially unable to reach New Orleans because flights nationwide were grounded due to communications problems at regional air traffic control centres. Martin Davies, a maritime law expert at Tulane University, told AP it was too early to determine the cause, but videos indicated a possible catastrophic system failure on the tanker and “super bad luck” in the timing of the strike as passengers were departing.
