TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Channel 9 spoke with the husband of a couple from Titusville who survived the American Heritage crash on Nov. 13, 2026.
At around 1:30 pm EST, a tanker struck the American Heritage, which had been docked for approximately two hours.
Peggy and Meredith Cooper were aboard the American Heritage when the incident occured.
“I had just stepped out of my room and was looking down the hall, and I saw this big green nose coming at us, and I thought, what’s he doing? And next thing you know, I saw him drop an anchor, and it didn’t do him any good,” said Peggy Cooper to WFTV.
According to the Mayor of New Orleans, Helena Moreno, all 191 passengers and crew members were accounted for, and only eight were hospitalized.
“I thought it was going to hit me nose on, but it hit the room below us and to the right of us just a little bit, which helped save us. But it knocked me across the wall about 10 feet in the air,” said Cooper.
The crash remains under investigation.
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