Cruise for the holidays sounds great, but one thing nobody ever wants to happen to them is to fall overboard. That is exactly what happened to one man on his Thanksgiving cruise last week. Luckily, this story ended has been hailed as a “Thanksgiving Miracle”.
An unnamed passenger aboard the Carnival Valor, that had left New Orleans on Wednesday the 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving, had a very chilling evening. He had been enjoying drinks at the bar with his sister on board when he stepped away to use the restroom supposedly. However, he never returned to the bar that night. By the next day around noon the sister had still not seen any traces of her brother and had reported him missing. The ship took action immediately by making an announcement over the intercom, requesting that the man check-in with guest services. The ship also had security searching the cruise liner for the missing man. The man didn’t turn up, and the Valor announced that there would be a delay. But other passengers noticed that the ship simply turned around.
By 2’oclock the man was officially reported missing and the Coast Guard was called. The Valor had been very thorough in their search, even going as far as draining one of the pools. Their Valor’s search effort brought them to the conclusion that the man was no longer aboard the ship. The Valor had turned around in hopes of retracing it’s “footsteps”. With the Coast Guard involved as well as the Valor there was a 200 mile wide search radius conducted by both sea and air. One major concern was that the water that night was only just above 70 degrees and the man had been missing for hours. Alas, at almost 8:30 PM, hours after the man went missing he was spotted 20 miles south of South-West Pass, Louisiana. The man was extracted from the water with the use of a helicopter.
The man by some miracle was completely conscious and responsive to the members of the rescue team. It was reported that he had hypothermia, shock, and was dehydrated. At this time no official statement was made as to why he fell overboard or what time exactly it had happened. Authorities believed though that he could have been in the water for up to 15 hours. Another passenger aboard the Carnival Valor reported that they had overheard the man’s family members discussing his disappearance prior to him being reported missing, they believed that he had been intoxicated when he left the bar, and that he had also been in trouble for using his vape in non-smoking designated areas. It’s unclear whether or not this played a part in him going overboard. The man was airlifted to a hospital, whereas by late Friday morning he was reported to have been in a stable condition.
The Carnival Valor continued its sailing towards Mexico. The man is extremely lucky and it truly was a “Thanksgiving Miracle” as reported by a Lt. Seth Gross, a rescue coordinator with Coast Guard.
