Tanker Collision Capsizes New Orleans Riverboat; All Accounted For

The 520-foot asphalt and bitumen tanker Atlantic Asphalt lost control and struck the paddlewheel boat at about 12:30 p.m. local time, as passengers were disembarking, Nola.com reported. The American Heritage is operated by American Cruise Lines. Video shared on social media showed people swimming away from the listing vessel. Witness Jamie Holford told WDSU it took about 15 minutes for the boat to overturn, describing the scene as “surreal.”

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said the tanker had apparently lost control and sent passengers and crew into the river. At a news conference, she said emergency responders from local, state and federal agencies “literally jumped right in to help.” Two New Orleans Harbor Police officers were also hospitalized after taking part in rescue efforts.

The US Coast Guard temporarily closed a three-mile stretch of the Mississippi River to commercial and recreational traffic while crews carried out rescues and assessed the damage. The National Transportation Safety Board said it would send an investigative team to New Orleans on Saturday to determine the circumstances of the collision.

Martin Davies, a maritime law expert at Tulane University, told WVUE the impact could have had more severe consequences if the tanker had hit the nearby Crescent City Connection bridge, which carries an estimated 160,000 vehicles a day. The collision also recalled the March 2024 disaster in Baltimore, when the Maersk-chartered Singapore-flagged container ship Dali lost power and steering and struck a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge collapsed, killing six highway maintenance workers and seriously injuring a seventh.