Search launched for woman who fell from Carnival cruise ship 150 miles off Louisiana

UPDATE: The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for the missing passenger at 5:37 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, after covering 2,514 square nautical miles in 14 hours. The original story is below.

A woman fell off a Carnival cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico and vanished, prompting an ongoing U.S. Coast Guard search.

It happened Wednesday, Feb. 16, about 150 miles south of Louisiana, Coast Guard officials said in a news release.

The identity of the 32-year-old woman was not released.

Coast Guard personnel say they were alerted around 3 p.m. Feb. 16 that “a passenger on the Carnival Valor cruise ship had fallen overboard.”

Teams were quickly sent to search the area by boat and helicopter, officials said.

Carnival Cruise Line spokesman Matt Lupoli told Associated Press “the woman jumped into the ocean from her balcony.”

“The ship’s command immediately began search and rescue procedures, returned to the area near where the incident occurred and notified the U.S. Coast Guard,” Lupoli said in a statement to AP. “Carnival’s CARE team is providing support to the guest’s husband who was traveling with her, as well as her family.”

Witnesses told station WAFB there was a disturbance involving ship security personnel on the tenth deck around 2:30 p.m., and the woman may have “hit her head on the side of the boat” while plunging into the water.

Tweets from passengers show a life preserver with a flare attached went ignored in the water.

Carnival Valor is a 952-foot cruise ship that offers trips out of Louisiana to the western Caribbean, according to Carnival.com.

At capacity, it has 2,980 guests and a crew of 1,180, the site reports.

This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 6:29 AM with the headline "Search launched for woman who fell from Carnival cruise ship 150 miles off Louisiana."