Search goes on for Carnival cruise worker

Scott Travis (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel
January 2, 2009

Rescue workers were still searching Thursday night for a cruise-ship employee who tumbled 82 feet overboard sometime after midnight while celebrating New Year's Eve.The cruise line has not released the identity of the employee, whom co-workers reported as going overboard about 50 minutes after ringing in the New Year on the Carnival Sensation, which was 20 miles east of Vero Beach. Co-workers threw him a life ring, but he never resurfaced, according to WPTV-Channel 5 in West Palm Beach.

Ship officials immediately began a search and contacted the Coast Guard for help.The employee was an off-duty member of Carnival's entertainment staff, the cruise line said. Six fellow crew members saw him go overboard, the Carnival said in a statement.

The Sensation helped with the search, then returned to port. It docked at Port Canaveral about 10 a.m. Thursday after a four-day cruise to the Bahamas.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the young man at this time as well as with his friends and family," a Carnival spokesman said in a statement Thursday. Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator, is based in Miami.

Search-and-rescue coordinators from Miami and Fort Pierce used four boats, two helicopters and two planes in their search. Carnival is also assisting the search, said Coast Guard spokesman James Harless.

The aircraft returned to base once night fell. The Coast Guard still had an 87-foot cutter in the area Thursday night, and will reassess the search this morning.Rescuers were searching more than 1,000 square miles. The current would take him northeast, Harless said.

Harless said the man's steep fall, as well as other conditions, hurt his chances of survival."It is a high distance. He fell into seven-foot seas without a life jacket at night," Harless said. "There were winds and strong current he was battling with, along with the high seas."The water temperature was 72 degrees, he said.

Local law enforcement in Vero Beach will investigate, Harless said. Carnival will conduct its own investigation as well, he said. WPTV reported that the FBI is investigating, although the incident appears to be an accident.

The missing employee is the second person in a week to make news for going over the rail of a cruise ship.Winter Haven resident Jennifer Ellis Seitz, 36, went off the Norwegian Pearl ship and into the Gulf of Mexico on Christmas Day. Her body has not been recovered, and multiple searches for her have ended. Family members said they think she might have jumped.

Alan Schmadtke of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press also was used. MICHAEL R. BROWN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS -->