A 28-year-old man was rescued from the sea Thursday night after falling overboard from a cruise ship, the US Coast Guard said in a news release.
The man was reported missing at around 2.30pm Thursday local time, and was found at sea at 8.25pm the same evening, the coastguard said.
Reported missing
The 28-year-old fell overboard from the Carnival Valor cruise ship on Wednesday evening, during a voyage from New Orleans in the United States to Cozumel in Mexico.
The man must have been in the water for over 15 hours before being picked up.
Cruise ship spokesman Matt Lupoli told the news channel that the man was reported missing after he disappeared following a visit to the toilet.
It is said that he was at the ship’s café with his sister.
Dramatic rescue operation
A large rescue operation was launched when the Coast Guard was called. The search took place within a radius of more than 300 kilometers in the Gulf of Mexico. All naval vessels in the area have been alerted.
Several hours into the rescue mission, they saw something in the water off the Louisiana coast. A coast guard helicopter immediately arrived at the scene and was able to lift the 28-year-old.
– I thought: “Now I will die”
The operation is described as a miracle by the rescue teams.
– That he’s managed to stay afloat and above the surface of the water for so long is something you can’t take for granted. This is something I will always remember, Coast Guard Lieutenant Seth Gross tells CNN.
– Miracle
It was he who estimated that the man had been in the water for at least 15 hours.
– It’s absolutely the longest period I’ve heard of. It’s probably a Thanksgiving miracle, she tells the channel.
Bridge open – woman (79) dead
He says that in his 17-year career he has never encountered anything like it.
“It demonstrates that the urgency to survive is something you have to factor into rescue missions,” he says.
According to the Coast Guard, he is in stable condition following the rescue operation and was transported to a hospital in New Orleans.
