The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is searching for a missing cruise passenger who went overboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
The USCG revealed that a 32-year-old woman had gone overboard on Carnival Valor at 2:28 p.m. on Wednesday, February 16, ~150 miles offshore SouthWest Pass, Louisiana.
Coast Guard Air Station Clear Water Medium Range Recovery MH-60T Jayhawk aircrew and Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircrew assisted in the search.
The cruise ship departed Cozumel (Mexico) at 3:27 p.m. on Tuesday, February 15.
The USCG has not announced how the woman ended up in the water. However, passengers said there had been a disturbance that caused security to detain her with handcuffs. The woman then jumped off the 10th deck on the 11th deck of the ship and hit the side of the vessel before hitting the water. She soon disappeared as crew members tossed life preservers and a flare marking the position of the victim.
Carnival Valor went into a holding pattern while waiting for Coast Guard crews.
The cruise ship is expected to dock in New Orleans (Port NOLA, Louisiana) Thursday morning.
Valor was on a 5-day roundtrip from Port NOLA with call ports Costa Maya (Feb 14) and Cozumel (Feb 15).
For more Carnival Valor incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.