Coast Guard suspends search for Louisiana man who went overboard from Carnival cruise ship

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search Thursday for a Port St. Lucie man who went missing while on a Carnival cruise earlier this week. Danielle McGrath says it is very out of character for her brother Kevin to take off or cut off communication, but on a family trip, he disappeared without a trace. Carnival said it had informed the Coast Guard and the man's family of the development. The cruise line didn't release the man's name — though the man's mother, Elisha Reid, told BI in an earlier interview that her son, Barnett, was the missing passenger. While the passenger's mom told Business Insider she was hopeful he was still alive, she said that she was worried he might not have survived.

Tyler Barnett of Louisiana last seen aboard Carnival Glory early Monday morning

IMAGERY AVAILABLE: Coast Guard searching for missing Carnival Glory passenger - U.S. Coast Guard

IMAGERY AVAILABLE: Coast Guard searching for missing Carnival Glory passenger.

Posted: Tue, 14 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

McGrath was "not detected by surveillance systems, including U.S. Customs and Border Patrol during the debarkation process," Carnival said. Natalia Rodrigues, a public relations manager for Carnival Cruise Line, said a team is "supporting the missing guest's family on board" and the ship is scheduled to dock in Montego Bay as scheduled Wednesday. While the chances of falling off a cruise ship are extremely low, at least nine other people have gone overboard this year, as BI previously reported. The time between someone going overboard and the cruise ship launching a search-and-rescue mission can often be the difference between life and death. A missing 28-year-old cruise passenger on the Carnival Glory is believed to have gone overboard on Monday, and the Coast Guard is searching the waters near New Orleans to find him. The United States Coast Guard said in a tweet on Tuesday that crews were searching for a 35-year-old man who fell off the Carnival Magic ship about 186 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday.

Coast Guard suspends search for Louisiana man who went overboard from Carnival cruise ship

They also broadcast the man-overboard alert to mariners across the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard said the passenger was 28-year-old Tyler Barnett from Houma, Louisiana. Petty Officer 3rd Class Anthony Randisi told USA TODAY that Carnival reported the guest was last seen around midnight on Monday.

Coast Guard searches for man missing from Louisiana cruise ship - NBC News

Coast Guard searches for man missing from Louisiana cruise ship.

Posted: Tue, 14 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Carnival passenger goes overboard during Caribbean cruise, Coast Guard suspends search

The search is 30 miles southwest of Southwest Pass, Louisiana, the Coast Guard said. The final port scheduled for the cruise is in Cozumel, Mexico, before returning to New Orleans. It was to tell them they haven't found any trace of the young father of two.

Carnival says security video shows missing Houma man jumped overboard

McGrath was reported missing by a family member, Carnival said in a statement to CBS News. A 2020 study from the industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association found that 19 people go overboard cruise ships each year on average. At least six people have gone overboard in the last three months, promoting debate over whether cruise ships should be required to install man-overboard detection systems. The man appears to have jumped from the fourth deck shortly before 2 a.m.

The ship was on its way from New Orleans to Montego Bay, Jamaica at the time as part of a week-long Western Caribbean cruise that began Sunday, according to CruiseMapper. "Only on Tuesday were we advised of the possibility of him wearing a different shirt, which allowed our security team to change the profile of the guest as we searched onboard video," the Carnival spokesperson said. "We have informed the U.S. Coast Guard and are providing assistance to the guest’s family that was traveling with him." Barnett was traveling with family aboard the Carnival Glory ship, a 13-deck, 110,000-ton boat with the capacity to carry 2,980 passengers. There have been several instances of people going overboard on the ship, including a 35-year-old who jumped into the water near Florida in 2007 and was rescued eight hours later. A 65-year-old woman was found dead after jumping overboard in 2015, and another passenger, a 21-year-old student, was never found after falling overboard south of the Bahamas that same year.

Mason said Destiny Barnett has since left the ship, which docked in Montego Bay in Jamaica on Wednesday. It took her multiple tries to get the cruise line to show her the surveillance video, she told NBC News on Tuesday. Between 2009 and 2019, there were 212 overboard incidents globally involving passengers and crew, according to statistics compiled for Cruise Lines International Association by consulting firm G.P. The Coast Guard confirmed that its crews are "actively searching near the Port of Miami and along the South Florida shore" after the missing person's report Monday. The U.S. Coast Guard used a helicopter to search the "water in the general vicinity," the cruise line said, and Miami-Dade police officers boarded the ship to investigate and search.

Under the 2010 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act, cruise ships must have 42-inch guard rails and man-overboard imaging or detection systems. However, not all cruise ships have implemented recently developed automatic man-overboard-detection technology, which uses thermal cameras and radars to immediately alert crew members when a person goes overboard. A total of 212 overboard incidents were reported on cruise ships from 2009 to 2019, according to a report commissioned by the industry-trade group Cruise Lines International Association. A spokesperson for the cruise line said the delay occurred because the crew was only advised that Barnett could be wearing a different shirt on Tuesday. The security team was able to change the search profile of onboard video afterward, the spokesperson said.

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Matt Lupoli, a spokesperson for Carnival, told CBS News that the man was at a bar with his sister on Wednesday night, and he disappeared after leaving to use the restroom. His sister, whose identity has also not been made public, alerted crew to his absence when he did not return to his stateroom overnight. In a post on X, the Coast Guard said search efforts were paused Monday night because of dangerous weather conditions, including rough seas and strong winds. It said it would launch more search assets as soon as conditions allowed. Barnett was reported missing by a family member on the ship Monday, a day after the Carnival Glory departed New Orleans for a weeklong journey, Carnival Cruise Line told FOX Business. Lupoli told Forbes the cruise line is “providing assistance” to the missing passenger’s family who are still onboard, noting the ship is scheduled to dock in Jamaica’s Montego Bay on Wednesday after departing from New Orleans on Sunday.

"Our thoughts remain with the guest’s family for their loss," the spokesperson said. Miami-Dade police issued a missing person's alert Tuesday morning for McGrath, who was last seen in a black shirt, shorts and gray sneakers. Police said he "may be in need of services" and asked anyone with information to contact authorities. The Coast Guard is searching an approximately 200-mile area for an unaccounted-for 28-year-old man from the Carnival Glory cruise ship.

The family of a missing Louisiana dad who officials said was filmed jumping off a Carnival cruise ship say they’ve now also seen the footage — and are convinced he slipped over the edge in a tragic accident. Ship staff and security searched the ship but were unsuccessful, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police Department told USA TODAY. Coast Guard crews searched over 5,600 square miles, an area larger than the size of Connecticut, using three different air crews, according to a Thursday press release.

He was reported missing by his family and "was not located on board despite an extensive search." And on Memorial Day, a man went overboard from the Carnival Magic cruise ship into the Atlantic Ocean, about 186 miles east of Jacksonville. "He can be seen climbing on a lifeboat and jumping from there," the spokesperson said. Tyler Barnett, of Houma, La., was last seen around midnight on Monday morning after the ship left Sunday for a week-long Western Caribbean cruise, according to the Coast Guard which is conducting the search. Along with her family, she's asking anyone on that cruise ship who may have seen or heard something to call Miami police.