‘Miracle on the Mississippi’: All passengers accounted for after New Orleans riverboat crash, officials say

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No deaths were reported after a massive tanker collided with paddlewheel cruise liner American Heritage steps away from a tourist-heavy downtown

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A nearly 500-foot tanker collided with a paddlewheel riverboat carrying more than 100 tourists and crew members along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, sending dozens into the water and sparking massive rescue efforts - ending with no loss of life.

In what New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno called a “miracle on the Mississippi,” all passengers and crew members on the American Cruise Lines American Heritage vessel have been accounted for. At least 32 people were hospitalized among the 180 to 190 passengers and crew members who were on the riverboat at the time. No deaths or critical injuries were reported.

It remains unclear what caused the tanker to “lose control,” Moreno said.

“The passengers began disembarking, but while that was happening, the cruise ship began to sink and then eventually the cruise ship toppled over and flipped,” the mayor said during a press conference Friday afternoon.

“When that occurred, we started to have people in the water,” Moreno added. “It was an all hands on deck approach.”

The crash unfolded along a heavily trafficked stretch of the riverfront just outside the French Quarter, near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center between the Central Business District and Warehouse District.

American Cruise Lines’ paddlewheelers are a familiar fixture along the riverwalk, which is surrounded by hotels, restaurants, a shopping mall, a riverfront park and the Audubon Aquarium.

At roughly 12:30 p.m. local time, in a stretch of the river under the Crescent City Connection bridge, the riverboat was preparing to disembark passengers when the tanker careened toward the docked vessel.

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