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The body of a 36-year-old woman was recovered from the ocean off the coast of Port Canaveral, Florida, Thursday morning after she fell overboard from the cruise ship Meraviglia. According to the Southeastern District of the Coast Guard, the unnamed passenger was discovered 30 kilometers out to sea.
MSC, the company that owns it Meraviglia, released a statement about the incident. It said the ship’s “advanced detection systems” alerted the crew, who “immediately launched a search and rescue operation, along with the U.S. Coast Guard supporting search efforts with boats and a helicopter.”
“Unfortunately,” the statement continued, “despite the speedy rescue operation, the passenger suffered fatal injuries. We offer our full support to the authorities as they investigate this matter.”
#BREAK: The Coast Guard is looking for a cruise passenger who may have gone overboard 20 miles off Port Canaveral.
A @WFTV photographers on board the MSC Meraviglia and got this video earlier this morning. The deck is now as this quest begins. pic.twitter.com/TZljGkmDu3
— Alexa Lorenzo (@ALorenzoTV) December 15, 2022
MSC expressed its sadness at the incident and offered its “sincere condolences to the family and those affected”.
CBS news reported that passengers were also notified through the ship’s loudspeakers.
The Coast Guard found the woman around 7:30 am. CBS quoted a statement from the Guard, which offered its “deepest condolences” to her family and asked for “discretion as we notify the family of this tragedy.”
The Daily mail reported that fighting broke out as soon as the Meraviglia – the fifth largest cruise ship in the world, with a capacity of 5,000 passengers – docked at Port Canaveral. Passenger Marisa Aebi told the British tabloid that “fights broke out during disembarkation over how long it took to disembark. They didn’t let us out until 12:00 and 12:30.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Aebi reportedly said, “definitely not something I ever thought I’d experience for sure. People were being arrested while disembarking for the fighting.”
News about cruise law reported that the incident took place despite the MSC Meraviglia possessing advanced automatic man overboard (MOB) technology that immediately “transmits a visual and audio signal alerting the bridge that a person has gone over the rails, so that the vessel can immediately begin emergency rescue operations.”
TMZ has published a report suggesting this was a suicide, but no Coast Guard or cruise line has confirmed the cause of death.
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