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All 130 or so people aboard a river cruise ship are rescued after a tanker hits it in New Orleans and it rolls onto its side

What happened
The tanker Atlantic Asphalt struck the docked paddlewheeler American Heritage on the Mississippi on Friday; the cruise ship took on water and capsized, but no one is missing.
Why it matters
Officials called it a “miracle on the Mississippi”: 32 people went to hospital with non-critical injuries and nine were still there on Saturday.
What’s next
The cause is under investigation; the US Coast Guard says there appears to have been some loss of steering.

How this story developed

  1. 16:15First report
  2. 22:142nd source
  3. 22:14Confirmed
  1. 16:15First reportFrance 24
  2. 22:142nd sourceBBC News World
  3. 22:14LatestConfirmedWas: Single source
Full story

A tanker hits a docked riverboat

About 130 people were rescued from a river cruise ship in New Orleans after a tanker struck it while it was docked on the Mississippi River on Friday, the BBC and France 24 reported. The cruise ship, the American Heritage, ended up lying on its side in the river after it was hit by the cargo vessel Atlantic Asphalt. A stretch of the river was closed for the rescue.

Calls about the collision began at about 13:30 local time (18:30 GMT), when people started trying to help passengers off the boat as it took on water, the head of the Port of New Orleans, Melanie Montroll, told a news conference. There were about 129 passengers on board, plus crew, according to the port authority. The paddlewheeler, operated by American Cruise Lines, was finishing an eight-day cruise to stops in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“Zero people unaccounted for”

Passengers began leaving the boat as it started to list, before it tipped onto its side, Mayor Helena Moreno said. Tugboat crews, police and other rescuers rushed to help. Thirty-two people were taken to hospital with non-critical injuries; on Saturday Moreno said nine were still in hospital.

“We have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi.”

Helena Moreno, Mayor of New Orleans, BBC News World

Moreno said the ship’s captain was injured but refused treatment until he knew everyone was accounted for. Governor Jeff Landry also called it a “miracle on the Mississippi”, and President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the rescue had been an “incredible job”, the BBC reported.

“Some type of a loss of steering”

The cause is still under investigation. US Coast Guard Captain Melanie Burnham said: “There seems to be some type of a loss of steering.” Landry said ships have operated safely on the river for years and pledged to find out what happened.

Joe Knab, a passenger from Kansas, told the NBC affiliate WDSU that the ship capsized quickly and that he spent about 20 minutes in the water before he was pulled out. A witness, Jamie Holford, told CBS: “It sounded like a war movie. Just imagine tons of steel crunching.”