Iceberg wall collapses at Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, injuring three

Three guests were injured Monday when an iceberg wall collapsed at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, the museum's owners said in a statement.

"Our iceberg wall collapsed and injured 3 guests who were taken to the hospital. At this time, we do not know the extent of their injuries," owners Mary Kellogg Joslyn and John Joslyn wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Monday night.

"Needless to say, we never would have expected an incident like this to occur as the safety of our guests and crew members are always top of mind," the statement continued. "We take pride in the quality of our maintenance and have measures in place to ensure that appropriate safety guidelines are upheld."

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The museum closed after the accident but reopened Tuesday morning.

In 2010, Cedar Bay Entertainment opened the ship-shaped attraction in Pigeon Forge, a popular tourist area in Sevier County that's a gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and home to the amusement park Dollywood. The Pigeon Forge location is Cedar Bay's second Titanic museum; the first is located in Branson, Missouri.

Visitors to the attraction receive boarding passes with names of passengers and crew members of the British ocean liner that famously sank after it struck an iceberg on its April 15, 1912, maiden voyage. Nearly 400 artifacts — from the ship's china to a battered deck chair — are on display.

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"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's website reads.

The museum's owners could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning. A post on the attraction's Facebook page stated it would be open Tuesday "for ticketed passengers." Comments on the post were turned off.

The Pigeon Forge Police Department confirmed in a brief statement Tuesday that officers responded to the museum about 8 p.m. Monday and "arrived to find that a wall of ice display fell and injured several visitors."

"The extent of the injuries is unknown," the statement reads. "Preliminary information indicates that this incident is accidental. No further information to be released at this time."