Search launched for cruise ship passenger - CNN.com

Search launched for cruise ship passenger - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Authorities searched Tuesday morning for a passenger who apparently had fallen off a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico.



The Carnival ship "Holiday" was stopped about one-third of the way as it headed from Mobile, Alabama, to Cozumel, Mexico, and an announcement was made that a passenger might have gone overboard, another passenger told CNN.

The passenger apparently fell about 10:30 p.m. Monday U.S. Central Time.

Passengers, who had been ordered to their cabins for a headcount, later watched as two search boats launched from the cruise ship to search nearby waters in the Gulf of Mexico. A Coast Guard helicopter also had been called.

A crew member had heard a loud splash near the vessel, prompting the headcount, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman told CNN.

A life preserver was thrown out, but no one was immediately found.

By early Tuesday, several boats still were hunting with searchlights in calm seas.

In a separate incident Monday, rescuers found a passenger who had fallen off another Carnival cruise ship. The man had climbed a railing for a better a view of the scenery and slipped into the water near Tampa, Florida, the Coast Guard said.

The passenger was found clinging to a sea buoy and taken to a hospital with cuts to his arms.