PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (WATE) —Three people were injured at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee after an iceberg wall collapsed Monday night, according to the facility’s owners.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, owners Mary Kellogg Joslyn and John Joslyn said the extent of their injuries but confirmed that all three were taken to the hospital.
“Needless to say, we never would have expected an incident like this to occur as the safety of our guests and team members is always top of mind. We take pride in the quality of our maintenance and have measures in place to ensure that appropriate safety guidelines are upheld.”
According to the Titanic Museum Attraction website, visitors can “experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlors, cabins and Grand Staircase of the Titanic while surrounded by more than 400 artifacts directly from the ship and its passengers. As visitors touch a real iceberg, walk the Grand Staircase and third class hallways, reach their hands into 28-degree water, and try to stand on the sloping decks, they learn what it was like on the RMS Titanic by experiencing it first-hand.”
The attraction has since reopened to ticketed guests but the owners said in an update Tuesday that the iceberg wall “does not currently exist” and the area has been blocked off for now.
” … Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all who were affected, including the first-responders,” the attraction’s owners wrote, adding that the safety of their guests “is always top of mind.”
They estimate the rebuild of the iceberg wall will take at least four weeks.