All 180 passengers and crew survived after a tanker struck a docked river cruise ship on the Mississippi River in New Orleans on Friday, prompting a large rescue operation, DW and the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The Atlantic Asphalt tanker hit the paddlewheel cruise boat American Heritage near the Port of New Orleans, according to AP.

Video from the scene showed the much larger vessel striking the cruise boat as metal and glass crashed. The boat began listing within minutes and flipped while emergency workers were still getting people off, AP said.

Tugboat operators, nearby workers, police, and other rescuers pulled dozens of people from the river, according to AP. The water temperature was about 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit). At least two police officers were also pulled from the water onto nearby ships, it said.

“We have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi,” Mayor Helena Moreno said at a news conference, as reported by AP. She said 32 people were taken to the hospital, and none had critical injuries. DW reported that all passengers were accounted for.

Uninjured passengers were taken to a nearby auditorium, where cruise officials held a roll call, Moreno said, according to AP. She said many passengers, most of them from out of town, had lost IDs, phones, and car keys and needed chargers, food, hotel rooms, and transport.

Devon Flanagan, who was working at the port, said the scene was chaotic. “It was just chaos,” he told AP, adding that other vessels rushed to help while people were still in the water.

The cause is not known. AP quoted Coast Guard Capt Melanie Burnham as saying the tanker appeared to have suffered “some type of loss of steering”. Martin Davies, a maritime law expert at Tulane University, told AP it was too early to say what happened.

He said the tanker was moving slowly upriver against the current and had already passed the difficult Algiers Point bend with a local pilot on board. That suggested “something must have gone really badly wrong”, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board plans to investigate. AP reported that its members were initially unable to reach New Orleans because all flights across the United States had been grounded by communications problems at regional air traffic control centres. The ground stop was later lifted.

American Cruise Lines, which operates the American Heritage, said in a statement that guests and crew were evacuated and it was “deeply concerned for everyone involved.” The boat was built in 2015, has five decks and can carry up to 150 passengers, according to AP and DW. It was completing an eight-day cruise to destinations in Louisiana and Mississippi. MarineTraffic data cited by AP shows it is 520 feet (160 metres) long and sails under the Marshall Islands flag.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he was travelling to New Orleans. US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on social media that the department was putting every available asset into the rescue effort and coordinating with state officials, DW reported.

According to the International Maritime Organization, Nave Shipping SA owns the tanker and registered it in Monrovia, Liberia, AP reported. MarineTraffic lists the company as a subsidiary of the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation. The corporation did not respond to AP’s request for comment. The vessel carries asphalt and bitumen, the report said.

Source: DW/AP