The U.S. Coast Guard said Rina Patel, 32, of Interlaken, New York, had been on the 11th deck of the Carnival Ecstasy as the ship passed near the island of Grand Bahama. The Coast Guard said she was wearing a white and pink floral pattern dress.
Advertisement
Carnival said in a statement: “Carnival legend experienced a technical issue related to the ship’s starboard steering gear which caused the ship to unexpectedly list about eight degrees”. Carnival released this statement Wednesday: “Early this morning, a 32-year-old female guest was witnessed jumping overboard from the cruise ship Carnival Ecstasy”.
“The company’s CareTeam is providing assistance and support to the missing guest’s family on board and our thoughts and prayers are with her and family and loved ones during this hard time”, Carnival said in the statement. It continued sailing about six and a half hours after Patel’s disappearance, and was scheduled to be in Charleston, South Carolina today.
One father who filmed the drama can be heard trying to calm his kids after one says: “This is the scariest thing ever”. She said they called the victim’s name for approximately 45 minutes.
“I think everyone was wanting it to not be true”, Parks said. USCG remains on site to continue the search.
The 855-foot Carnival Ecstasy, which can carry more than 2,000 passengers and 920 crewmembers, last stopped Tuesday in Nassau in the Bahamas.
Advertisement
A spokeswoman said she was not aware of any prior incidents of passengers going overboard since the ship made Charleston its home port in February, when it replaced the Carnival Fantasy.
