DETROIT – Coast Guard personnel are en route Sunday evening to the location of an 86-foot passenger vessel that suffered an engine shutdown while underway in the Detroit River with 143 passengers and six crewmembers aboard.
A marine investigator and a marine inspector from Coast Guard Sector Detroit are headed to the private dock in East China, Mich., where the passenger vessel Diamond Belle was able to moor after the engine casualty.
Sector Detroit was notified at 1:25 p.m. by Canadian coast guard personnel at Vessel Traffic Service Sarnia, Ontario. Initial reports are that smoke was seen in the engine room, followed by a shutdown of the vessel’s main diesel engine.
With no means of propulsion, the master was reportedly able to use the vessel’s momentum to guide it to a private dock, drop the vessel’s anchor and swing it in to moor there.
The Coast Guard is working closely with the vessel owner, Diamond Jack’s River Tours, to investigate the matter.
There are no reports of injuries. The waterway remains open to marine traffic.
