CNN) -- The company that owned the bus involved in a crash that killed 12 American tourists in Chile was not legally cleared to operate tours, officials said Thursday.

The Chilean National Tourism Service said the company, Andinatours, had not completed a mandated registration process.

The bus passengers were on an excursion from a cruise ship docked in a Chilean port. The 12 who were killed and two other passengers who survived had arranged the tour on their own, Celebrity Cruises President Dan Hanrahan told reporters in Miami, Florida.

The bus driver and a tour guide also survived. Hanrahan said initial reports indicated the driver swerved to avoid a truck on a mountain road in northern Chile before the bus rolled down a 300-foot hillside. (Watch the scene of the deadly crash -- :48)

The Associated Press reported a Chilean prosecutor said the bus driver might have been asleep.

"The investigation is still open, but we have an initial theory," Manuel Gonzalez told Radio Cooperativa of Santiago, the AP said.

Hanrahan said Andinatours is not affiliated with Celebrity Cruises.

"We don't know this operator," he said. "It's not somebody we've ever dealt with in the past."

The passengers were members of a B'nai B'rith group, Hanrahan said.

The American survivors were awake and alert, and their vital signs were stable, said Dr. Mauricio Lynn of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, citing his latest update from Chilean doctors.

He said one survivor had a broken leg and the other had a broken hand. Both were in the intensive care unit for observation.

"We are devastated," Hanrahan said. "On behalf of everyone at Celebrity Cruises, I extend our thoughts and prayers to everyone whose lives have been touched by this awful tragedy."

He did not release names of the victims or their hometowns.

B'nai B'rith International said the travelers belonged to a chapter in New Jersey.

An administrator at the Ponds in Monroe Township, New Jersey, told the AP several of those killed were residents of the age-restricted development. Eileen Marcus said she received the news in e-mails from passengers on the ship, the AP said.

The crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. ET) Wednesday. The tourists were among passengers from the Celebrity Cruises liner Millennium, which was docked in Arica, Chile, as part of a two-week cruise that was slated to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 2.

Hanrahan said the Millennium would reach Port Everglades as scheduled.

The bus was returning to the ship from a national park near the Bolivian border when it swerved off the highway, officials said. Survivors were transported to Dr. Juan Noe Regional Hospital in Arica, 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) north of Santiago. (Map)

The ship was carrying about 1,536 guests and 920 crew members, the cruise line said.

Hanrahan said the cruise company was flying officials and a rabbi to assist the passengers, including 50 other members of the B'nai B'rith group. He said some relatives were also on their way to Chile.

U.S. State Department officials are also en route to Arica to assist local authorities, the cruise line and families of the victims.

Journalist Amaro Gomez-Pablos contributed to this report.
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I can totally see how this happened. When my ex and I went on a cruise in January I thought we were going to go tumbling down the side of a mountain in Belize when we were on our way into the jungle. I am sure the news station will spin this into another couuple weeks of "cruise ship safety issue" stories, even though this should be classified under, "be careful what you do when you go to third world countries" (Is Chile a 3rd World Country?)

I'm not sure Chile is technically a peripheral country, but it's irrelevant. Point is, when you're in another country, you don't rush headlong into other countries. I totally agree with you there--it's the same when when you take any exursion outside the country... You gotta be extra careful what you do and who you hire.

I've got to admit. It would be pretty rad to be able to fly 300 feet off of a cliff in a bus and escape with only a broken hand.