Search abandoned for man overboard on Caribbean cruise
From Caribbean360
The US Coast Guard mounted an intensive search for a 26-year-old passenger after he reportedly jumped from the Adventure of the Seas in the Mona Passage. (Credit: Royal Caribbean promo video)
FLORIDA, United States, Thursday January 2, 2014 – The three-day search for a Canadian passenger who went overboard on a Royal Caribbean cruise on Saturday night has been abandoned.
The United States Coast Guard has announced that it has ended the search for Tien Phuoc Nguyen, who was aboard the Adventure of the Seas with his family en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico at the time of the tragedy.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of this missing passenger during these difficult times,” US Coast Guard Captain Drew Pearson said in the statement.
The captain turned the vessel around and the US Coast Guard launched the search on Saturday night after fellow passengers reported seeing him go overboard around 9:00 p.m.
Efforts to find Nguyen nevertheless proved unsuccessful.
According to Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises, the ship’s closed-circuit TV cameras also captured Nyugen going overboard.
The incident occurred in the Mona Passage, the strait between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard mounted an intensive search in the area with helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and two Coast Guard cutters.
Meanwhile, the FBI is trying to determine what caused 26-year-old Nyugen to go overboard.
“We are looking into whether he jumped, or whether it was an accident, or whether he committed suicide, or whether someone pushed him,” Moises Quinones, public information officer for the FBI’s San Juan Office, told ABC News.
For more on this story go to:
See also iNews Cayman story published December 30 2013 “Man Overboard from the Adventure of the Seas” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/man-overboard-from-the-adventure-of-the-seas/
EDITOR’s NOTE: At the present time the RCIPS Marine Unit continues to search for the missing Canadian national who it is suspected may have fallen from the Independence of the Seas at about 6 am on Tuesday 31 December 2013 at approximately 13 miles NW of Grand Cayman. For this story go to: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/passenger-missing-from-visiting-cruise-ship/
Related story:
Cayman police believe vanished cruise ship passenger fell
By Danica Coto From Deseret News
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Police in the Cayman Islands said Wednesday that they suspect a Canadian cruise ship passenger who recently vanished may have fallen off the boat as search crews scoured waters around the British Caribbean territory.
Police said they believe the unidentified 65-year-old man may have fallen around dawn on Tuesday about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northwest of Grand Cayman. Police said they interviewed staff and witnesses aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruises ship and were still investigating the disappearance.
“The Port Authority broadcasted an appeal to all marine traffic to be on the lookout for the missing passenger,” police said in a statement.
The man’s wife had reported him missing Tuesday morning as the Independence of the Seas ship prepared to dock at George Town Harbor.
Tracy Quan, a spokeswoman for Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises, said Wednesday the investigation was turned over to local authorities before the cruise ship departed and resumed its route. She said the man’s wife disembarked in Grand Cayman.
Police said the wife told them they went to bed around 1 a.m. Tuesday but that he was gone when she woke up about six hours later.
Authorities said they searched the 15-deck, 1,112-foot-long (339-meter-long) craft and reviewed closed-circuit camera footage before the ship departed. The ship is on a six-night cruise that departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday and has port calls in Jamaica and Haiti. It can accommodate 4,375 guests and more than 1,300 crew members.
The man is the second Canadian passenger that has gone missing from a Royal Caribbean ship in recent days.
On Saturday, 26-year-old Tien Phuoc Nguyen jumped from the Adventures of the Seas near a tiny Puerto Rican island on the last night of a weeklong Caribbean cruise with his family. The U.S. Coast Guard ended its search for him on Monday.
For more on this story go to:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765644677/Cayman-police-believe-cruise-ship-passenger-fell.html
