A freighter collided with a cruise ship carrying around 130 people in New Orleans, causing the paddlewheel vessel to capsize. More than 30 people were hospitalized.
NEW DELHI: A tanker rammed into a docked cruise ship at the Port of New Orleans on Friday, causing the passenger vessel to take on water, list sharply and eventually overturn on the Mississippi River. All passengers and crew were rescued, but at least 32 people were taken to hospital, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said.
Around 180 people, including passengers and crew, were aboard the five-storey cruise ship American Heritage when the tanker, identified as Atlantic Asphalt, collided with it. None of those taken to hospital suffered critical injuries, Moreno said.
The tanker apparently lost steering before crashing into the cruise vessel, triggering a large-scale rescue operation. Tugboat operators, dock workers, police personnel and other rescuers rushed to the scene as passengers and crew were evacuated. Several people were pulled from the river after falling into the water.
"We have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi,” Moreno said at a news conference, as rescuers and others cheered. “It was docked right at the Port of New Orleans when a tanker ship lost control and collided into the cruise ship,” Moreno said.
Cruise ship overturns as rescue teams evacuate passengers
The American Heritage began listing within minutes of the collision and eventually flipped while emergency personnel were still working to evacuate those aboard. Dozens of passengers and at least two police officers were pulled from the Mississippi River, where the water temperature was around 19 degrees Celsius.
Devon Flanagan, who was working nearby at the Port of New Orleans, said he saw workers rushing towards the dock before noticing that the cruise ship had overturned and passengers were struggling in the water.
“It was just chaos,” he said. “You had all types of ships, like other barges and other companies down there trying to help out, which also was a little convoluted because you had people still in the water.”
The exact cause of the collision remains unclear. Coast Guard Capt. Melanie Burnham said the tanker appeared to have experienced “some type of loss of steering”. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was expected to investigate the incident. However, its investigators were initially unable to reach New Orleans after flights across the country were grounded due to communication problems at regional air traffic control centres.
Passengers taken to auditorium after rescue
Passengers who were not injured were taken to a nearby auditorium, where cruise officials conducted a roll call to ensure everyone was accounted for, Moreno said. Many passengers lost their identification documents and car keys during the incident.
Most were visitors from outside New Orleans and needed assistance with accommodation, transportation and other basic arrangements.
“They needed chargers for their phones. Some people didn't have phones,” Moreno said. “This has now made national news. They need to contact their families to let them know they're OK. Food, hotel rooms, transportation.”
The American Heritage, operated by American Cruise Lines, was completing an eight-day voyage covering several destinations along the Mississippi River in Louisiana and Mississippi. Built in 2015, the 160-metre-long vessel can accommodate up to 150 passengers. It was scheduled to end its journey in New Orleans, according to maritime tracking website MarineTraffic.
Expert points to possible system failure aboard tanker
Martin Davies, a maritime law expert at Tulane University, said it was too early to establish the cause of the collision. However, videos of the incident appeared to indicate a possible catastrophic failure of systems aboard the tanker.
He described the circumstances as “super bad luck” because the collision occurred as passengers were departing the cruise ship. Davies said the tanker was travelling upriver against the current at a relatively slow speed.
“For something like this to happen for an upbound ship indicates that something must have gone really badly wrong,” Davies said. He added that tankers generally have local pilots aboard to guide them through waterways because of their familiarity with the river and the vessel. The tanker had also completed the difficult Algiers Point turn on the Mississippi River before the collision.
Tanker linked to Chinese state-owned shipbuilding company
According to the International Maritime Organisation, the tanker is owned by Nave Shipping SA, a company registered in Monrovia, Liberia. MarineTraffic identifies it as a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, a major Chinese state-owned conglomerate.
The corporation accounted for nearly a quarter of the global commercial shipbuilding market in 2022 and was also the world's largest military shipbuilder at the time, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. China State Shipbuilding Corporation did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Friday afternoon.
During his first term, US President Donald Trump listed the corporation among more than two dozen Chinese-owned companies that he accused of exploiting “United States investors to finance the development and modernisation” of the Chinese military. The executive order did not freeze all economic transactions involving the listed companies but imposed restrictions on the types of transactions they could undertake on US soil.
The Atlantic Asphalt specialises in transporting large quantities of asphalt and bitumen, a semi-solid petroleum-based material commonly used in road construction and roofing, according to MarineTraffic.
