A passenger has been reported missing from a Carnival cruise ship which sailed from Tampa to Key West, Florida.

The United States Coast Guard is reporting that a 50 year old man may have gone overboard somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico after the ship sailed from Tampa heading for Key West. New accounts state that the Carnival Paradise notified the U.S. Coast guard around 10:00 A.M. this morning of the passenger’s disappearance.

The Carnival ship is currently on a 6 day cruise which left from the port of Tampa yesterday, May 21st, around 4:00 P.M., heading to  Key West, Florida with an additional port in Cozumel, Mexico on May 24th, and a return to Tampa on May 26th. The ship was scheduled to arrive in Key West around 11:00 A.M. this morning.

The AIS data does not show that the Paradise turned around or otherwise changed direction indicating that it may have  conducted a search for the guest. One passenger on the ship tweeted around 10:30 to 11:00 A.M. this morning “On the #CarnivalParadise … they are now doing room to room searches for a passenger. Praying he’s passed out in a room.”

Based on this information, it appears that the ship did not realize that the passenger had gone overboard as the ship sailed from Tampa overnight until this morning when it finally notified the Coast Guard around 10:00 A.M.  New accounts state that the “incident” approximately 85 miles west of Fort Myers, Florida. It is less than clear whether this refers to when the man went overboard, or the location of the ship when Carnival realized that a guest was missing, or the location when the Coast Guard was finally notified.

The cruise ship was probably west of Fort Meyers late last night or very early this morning.  It is possible that there may be surveillance film which captures the guest going overboard and the ship figured out the approximate coordinates after the fact. But the fact that passengers are saying that the ship was conducting a search of the cabins this morning (after it reported the person missing to the Coast Guard) seems to suggest that Carnival may have no idea went the guest went missing from the ship.

The man has been identified by news accounts as Brian Lamonds of Greensboro.

A local news stations is reporting that the Coast Guard has deployed a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from its station in Clearwater, a HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft from Miami and Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo from Key West.

As I have commented on before, the failure of cruise ships to be equipped with automatic man overboard systems with modern technology to detect people going over the rails of ships and immediately send an alarm to the bridge (as well as track the person in the water with radar and infrared technology) results in confusion like this. The irresponsibility of cruise lines in not complying with the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 (which requires cruise lines to install auto-man overboard systems) not only causes a delay in search and rescue efforts but forces the Coast Guard to deploy tremendously expensive assets to conduct an exponentially expanded search for the missing person.

Carnival released a statement saying: “On Tuesday morning, a male guest went overboard as the ship was sailing from Tampa to Key West, Florida. The Coast Guard was notified and is currently conducting a search for the guest. We are cooperating fully with all authorities. Our Care Team is providing support and assistance to the guest’s family.”

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