Local News
Coast Guard Called to Search for Missing Cruise Employee in the Gulf
When a bartender didn’t show up to his shift on Royal Caribbean cruise ship Liberty of the Seas while it was out to sea, officials called the U.S. Coast Guard to help search for the man. ABC 13 says the missing man is 39-years-old and was “reported missing at 4:30 a.m. after a complete search of the ship was conducted.” The Liberty of the Seas is currently on a seven-day journey from Galveston tops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Mexico.
The New York Daily News quotes a Coast Guard report saying he was last seen on the boat “approximately 170 miles southeast of Galveston.” They spoke to the company’s Global Corporate Communications Manager, Owen Torres, who said that as of Monday afternoon, “We notified the U.S. Coast Guard who are assisting us with the search efforts. At this time, unfortunately, our missing crew member has not yet been found.”
Cruise Law News speculates that the ship must not be outfitted with a man overboard system which would notify the captain when a person falls over the railing on a cruise. The system takes a photo and activates a signal once a person passes through the sensors while falling off of the ship. It can even use radar to track where the fallen person is in the water so they can be quickly retrieved.