3 injured after ‘iceberg’ at Titanic museum collapses

More than a century after an iceberg brought down the Titanic, another (fake) one injured three visitors at a museum in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

The museum, modelled after the boat and dedicated to the ill-fated 1912 voyage, also featured an “iceberg” wall that consisted of real ice that visitors could touch. According to local news outlet WVLT, it was created using a water filtration system.

The ice wall collapsed on Monday evening, injuring three people nearby. As of this writing, the extent of the injuries is unknown. The museum’s owners, Mary Kellogg Joslyn and John Joslyn, posted about the incident on their official Facebook page.

“Immediately following the accident, Titanic Museum Attraction was closed, and as of the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 3, we reopened to ticketed passengers,” reads the post, in part. “The iceberg wall does not currently exist, and the affected area has been blocked off, for the time being. We anticipate it will take at least four weeks for the iceberg to rebuild.”

The Pigeon Forge Police Department said in a statement that the collapse appears to be accidental, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. The museum is conducting its own investigation into the incident.

Cedar Bay Entertainment opened the attraction in 2010. The company has another Titanic museum in Branson, Mo.

Guests receive boarding passes containing the names of actual passengers or crew members who were aboard the British passenger liner.

Visitors can see more than 400 Titanic artifacts, shovel “coal” in the boiler room, and feel 28-degree water through self-guided tours, according to the attraction’s website.

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The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage in the north Atlantic, in the early hours of April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg. An estimated 1,500 people died.

— With files from The Associated Press and a file from Sean Previl