New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said Friday that every passenger and crew member aboard a river cruise ship was accounted for after an asphalt tanker lost control and capsized the vessel on the Mississippi River.
Thirty-two passengers were taken to area hospitals, none with critical injuries, Moreno said. No one was killed. About 129 passengers, along with crew members, were aboard the American Heritage when the tanker hit it.
Moreno addressed the outcome at an evening news conference.
“We have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi,” she said.
The Atlantic Asphalt hit the American Heritage at about 12:30 p.m. while the riverboat sat at the dock, the Port of New Orleans said. It had tied up about two hours earlier to let passengers off. Then the tanker hit. The riverboat took on water and rolled onto its side. New Orleans Fire and Emergency Services later released the radio traffic from around the time of the collision. On it, a responder reports a riverboat taking on water steadily.
Passengers went into the river as the ship turned over. Some surfaced in life jackets. Others climbed the railings as the deck tipped toward the water. Boats already on the river pulled more than a dozen people out, and the mayor said private vessels in the area responded as volunteers.
Jamie Holford watched the riverboat strike the dock and told CBS News that people hurried off before it rolled.
“It looked like something off the Titanic,” he said.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry flew to New Orleans. He told reporters the outcome was a literal miracle and pointed to the ages of the passengers aboard. Landry said he got Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on the phone first. Mullin was sworn in as DHS secretary in March.
President Donald Trump called soon after, the governor said, and offered the state whatever it needs.
The tanker runs 160 meters, roughly twice the length of the 81-meter paddlewheeler it hit. Tracking data shows it reached New Orleans on Nov. 11 out of Paulsboro, New Jersey.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) dispatched a Go Team to the scene for Saturday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded every flight in the country Friday afternoon over a communication problem at air traffic control centers, and Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) said the halt was holding the investigators up.
“I know they are desperately trying to get here,” Carter told WDSU.
Landry said an active investigation is underway. The Coast Guard closed the river to all vessel traffic between mile markers 93 and 96.
