NYC-Caribbean cruise ship guest jumps overboard.

JoeyandDavid · May 29, 2006

NEW YORK -- A cruise ship sailing from the British Virgin Islands to New York was diverted for 12 hours so authorities could search for a guest who jumped overboard, but the person wasn't found.

Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement that its Carnival Legend vessel was on route from Tortola just after 1 a.m. Saturday when the passenger was seen leaping into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Coast Guard sent a C-130 airplane crew to help look for the missing guest, Coast Guard spokesman Mike Lutz said Sunday.

But after 12 hours without finding the guest, the Coast Guard sent the cruise ship on its way to New York, where it docked Sunday night, Carnival said. New York, the 963-foot-long ship's homeport, was the last stop on the eight-day round-trip cruise, which visited San Juan, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, before Tortola.

The Carnival Legend, dubbed a Fun Ship on the cruise company's Web site, can carry more than 2,100 passengers and 900 crew members. It features 12 decks and 1,062 staterooms, almost all with ocean views.

The Carnival Corp. did not identify the missing guest.

"The company's thoughts and prayers are with the family and the loved ones of the missing guest," it said in the statement.

It was unclear whether the search efforts would resume.

Suzila · May 29, 2006

How sad for that person, and for his/her family. Imagine doing this while on vacation. How awful.

TheSkipper · May 29, 2006

This is getting way too common place lately. So sad.

Lisa63 · May 29, 2006

This is terrible news. My condolences to his family.

Suzila · May 29, 2006

Even worse...they are reporting on the news this morning that he had an argument with his wife, and then jumped in front of his wife and two small children. Just awful.

GottaCruz · May 29, 2006

How horrible for his wife and kids. How could anyone hurt their family like that- I hope those kids don't grow up to feel that he didn't love them enough. I hope they all get therapy to understand that he must have been mentally unbalanced.

sailingrose · May 29, 2006

Sad sad sad. My sympathies to the family. Those kids are going to need years of therapy.

KeithnRita · May 30, 2006

What is the world coming to? To bad the kids had to witness that. At least he didn't throw them over first like some guy in a Miami hotel did this weekend.