Coast Guard searching for man believed to have fallen from Carnival ship into Gulf of Mexico

Coast Guard searching for man believed to have fallen from Carnival ship into Gulf of Mexico

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a passenger reported missing from a Carnival cruise ship which left New Orleans Sunday.

According to the Coast Guard, the man was reported missing shortly before 1 p.m. Monday. He was last seen on ship’s surveillance footage about midnight that morning.

The 28-year-old man, identified by his family as Tyler Barnett of Houma, La., was a passenger aboard the Carnival Glory. The cruise ship’s crew searched the vessel and could not locate Barnett.

Once the USCG was contacted, two aircraft were launched and searched into Monday evening. Rescue crews were searching an area of more than 200 miles of the ship’s path “due to the uncertainty of the potential time of him falling overboard,” the Coast Guard said.

Messages and broadcasts to other vessels in the Gulf were sent, notifying them of the missing passenger.

The Coast Guard said Monday night weather conditions were hampering search efforts, with gale conditions and 8- to 12-foot seas prompting a halt to the search overnight, but Tuesday morning a HC-144 Ocean Sentry was launched to resume search efforts.

The Glory was on its way from New Orleans to Montego Bay, Jamaica at the time Barnett went missing. The cruise is a 7-day voyage in the Western Caribbean, according to Carnival. The ship was cleared by the Coast Guard to continue on to Montego Bay, where it is scheduled to arrive Wednesday.