Coast Guard searches for female Carnival Valor cruise passenger, 32, who jumped overboard after being detained in HANDCUFFS by ship security
- An unidentified woman jumped off a Carnival cruise ship going from Cozumel, Mexico to New Orleans around 2:30pm on Wednesday
- She is said to be 32 years old and was allegedly held in handcuffs after being reportedly involved in a disturbance with security onboard
- The US Coast Guard has sent two helicopter crews to help try and locate the woman in the Gulf of Mexico
- The incident happened about 150 miles off of Louisiana’s coast
The U.S. Coast Guard is on the lookout for a passenger reportedly stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after going overboard a Carnival cruise ship on Wednesday.
The Carnival Valor was 150 miles offshore near Southwest Pass, Louisiana, completing a trip from Cozumel, Mexico, to New Orleans – a little more than 76 hours – when a 32-year-old woman allegedly jumped over the ship’s upper deck at around 2:30 p.m.
The Coast Guard sent out two sets of helicopter aircrews to locate the woman’s location after receiving a call about the incident at around 3 p.m.
It is not clear how she ended up in the water, but some passengers said security on board had allegedly detained the woman with handcuffs prior to her disappearance.
A passenger onboard the ship suggested that the vessel had turned around to go back to the area where the person jumped into the water, according to Fox 8.
The 952-foot, 110,000-ton Carnival Valor can carry 2,980 passengers and 180 crew members. It has 13 decks and it was built in 2004 before being refurbished in 2008.
The ship departed from Mexican shores around 3:27 p.m. on Tuesday and is expected to arrive in New Orleans on Thursday morning.
A video was shared of a life preserver and a flare with red smoke coming out in the water, by Johnny on Twitter (@johnnytrupp). It was recorded on the ship’s stern.
A Twitter user managed to capture the moments after the woman went overboard and a life preserver was thrown into the water along with a flare with red smoke coming out of it
Passengers looked overboard after a woman, who was held in handcuffs after being involved in a disturbance on the ship jumped its upper deck
The Carnival Valor has 13 decks and can hold 2,980 passengers as well as 180 crew members
Cruise lines have a legal obligation under the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and Coast Guard regulations to immediately undertake search and rescue operations when a passenger is observed going overboard.
The success rate for finding people alive who have fallen overboard stands at around 25 percent and a number of factors affect this, including location, time of day and weather.
‘Carnival’s CARE team is providing support to the guest’s husband who was traveling with her,’ Carnival said in a statement.
Carnival has the most number of passengers and crew that have fallen overboard since 2000, a total of 73, according to the website CruiseJunkie.com.
Royal Caribbean’s tally is 55; there have been 28 for Norwegian Cruise Line and 24 passengers or crew went overboard on Princess Cruise Lines – also owned by Carnival – in the last 11 years, according to the site.
The Carnival Valor was 150 miles offshore Southwest Pass, Louisiana, completing a trip that departed from Cozumel, Mexico on Tuesday to go to New Orleans
On average, approximately 25 people fall off cruise ships per year.
In 2019, 26 people fell overboard, out of the 29 million guests who took a cruise that year. This makes a person’s chances of falling overboard during a cruise around one in 1.4 million.
This latest incident took place two months after a woman fell to her death in the Pacific Ocean after falling overboard on another Carnival ship, spurring an international search effort.
The FBI said it was investigating the incident amid allegations of foul play.
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