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The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended a 31-hour search for a passenger who fell from a cruise ship near Mexico, authorities said on Sunday.
The woman, who was not immediately identified, was aboard a Carnival cruise ship when she fell “from the balcony of her cabin on Saturday morning,” Carnival Cruise Line said in a statement. The company said the ship took a three-day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico, and the coast guard said the woman fell near there.
Carnival did not provide further details on how the woman fell overboard.
Saturday, Coast Guard said that he had deployed a cutter called Forrest Rednour and a helicopter, and that he was working with the Mexican Navy to locate the woman.
Crews began searching early in the morning on Saturday and Sunday, the coast guard said. He conducted a search of around 520 square nautical miles, he said.
A passenger told a California news station, KABC-TV, that he heard someone say “Man Overboard, Man Overboard Port Side” over the ship’s loudspeakers. He said when he looked over his bedroom balcony he saw crew members throwing life jackets into the water.
Daniel Miranda, another passenger, told the station that cruise officials said they “checked with cameras” that a woman had fallen into the water. A photo he took, broadcast by the station, also showed that the area of ​​the ship where the woman fell was cordoned off with blue tape.
After more than 31 hours of scrubbing the area, the The Coast Guard said on Sunday that he had suspended his research “pending further information”.
The cruise line said in its statement that after assisting the Coast Guard, its ship returned to Long Beach, Calif., As scheduled on December 12. “Our hearts are with the guest and their family, and our care team is supportive,†the company said.
In California, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents came to the ship “with an evidence response team” to assist in the case, a spokesperson for the office said Monday.
It is increasingly rare for passengers to fall from cruise ships, according to Carolyn Spencer Brown, who has covered the cruise industry for about 25 years, currently as content manager for Cruise Media LLC.
“It is becoming much rarer than it was 20 years ago,” she said, citing “increasingly sophisticated design specifications” that have prioritized safety on ships.
“They are designed to protect you,†she continued. “You really don’t hear about it very often, and when it does, other factors are usually involved. “
In 2010, Congress adopted the Cruise Ship Safety and Security Act, which required ships to be fitted with rails at least 42 inches above deck, as well as alarms and other technology to help signal and find overwhelmed passengers.
In 2018 and 2019, 26 and 29 people fell overboard from cruise ships and ferries, according to Cruisejunkie.com, which lists cases reported by the media, including those involving people who jumped. In 2020 and 2021, when far fewer passengers took cruises due to the pandemic, the site recorded three incidents.
Carnival did not immediately respond to a question about the number of people who have fallen overboard its ships in recent years. The ship to Ensenada this weekend, the Carnival Miracle, debuted in 2004 and can accommodate more than 2,100 guests and 934 crew, according to the company.
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