26-year-old man overboard from cruise ship near the Florida Keys
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 26-year-old man who went overboard Friday from the Carnival Victory cruise ship. It was 35 miles from Islamorada at the time.
The 2,764-passenger ship was returning to Miami after a four-day Western Caribbean cruise when the man went overboard. The Coast Guard announced at 9:35 a.m. that it sent a helicopter, ship and plane to look for the man early Friday. By 10:15 a.m. the Carnival Victory was back on its normal route to Miami as the Coast Guard continued the search.
Friday’s incident marks the third case of a person overboard from a cruise ship in the last month. On Saturday a 69-year-old woman from Holland went overboard the MSC Preziosa; the Coast Guard did not find her. On Nov. 22, a 27-year-old crew member on Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas disappeared from the ship and was never found. In both cases, the disappearances went undiscovered for several hours, until the ships reached port.
A 2010 federal law requires cruise ships to be equipped with technology to detect overboard incidents as soon as they happen “to the extent that such technology is available.” Most cruise lines do not believe the available overboard detection technology is reliable, and most ships do not have it. Carnival declined to comment on whether the Carnival Victory has automatic overboard detection technology.
This article has been updated to reflect the ship’s correct itinerary: Western Caribbean.
This story was originally published December 14, 2018 at 11:35 AM.
