Coast Guard searches for missing Carnival cruise ship passenger

Sheri Walsh
·2 min read
4
UPI
A passenger aboard the Carnival Glory cruise ship, which left New Orleans on Sunday, has been reported missing and is believed to have jumped overboard as the ship traveled to Montego Bay, Jamaica. The U.S. Coast Guard is searching a 200-mile area in the Gulf of Mexico for the missing man. File photo by Andy Newman/EPA PHOTO/EPA/

Nov. 14 (UPI) -- The Coast Guard is searching for a Louisiana passenger, from the Carnival Glory cruise ship, who was reported missing and believed to have jumped overboard as the ship traveled between New Orleans and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Tyler Barnett, of Houma, La., was last seen around midnight on Monday morning after the ship left Sunday for a week-long Western Caribbean cruise, according to the Coast Guard which is conducting the search.

On Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Line gave an update after reviewing surveillance video, and said the missing guest jumped off the ship's deck 4 at 1:40 a.m. on Monday.

"He can be seen climbing on a lifeboat and jumping from there," the spokesperson said.

While earlier reports indicated there was no video showing Barnett going overboard, security crews changed his profile after they were informed of the possibility that he was wearing a different shirt.

Carnival is assisting Barnett's family who are still on board. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Jamaica on Wednesday.

"The Coast Guard is searching an approximately 200-mile area for an unaccounted-for 28-year-old man from the Carnival Glory cruise ship," the Coast Guard wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Coast Guard also issued messages "to mariners in the Gulf of Mexico notifying them of the missing passenger."

On Tuesday night, the Coast Guard launched an HC-144 Ocean Sentry air crew and a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter air crew, before pausing search efforts due to deteriorating weather conditions and poor visibility.

Barnett is not the first passenger this year reported to have gone missing during a Carnival cruise. In September, a 26-year-old man was reported missing from the Carnival cruise ship Conquest after it docked at the Port of Miami in Florida.

In July, another man was reported missing from the Carnival Elation cruise ship off the coast of Florida after he was believed to have deliberately jumped from the ship.

And on Memorial Day, a man went overboard from the Carnival Magic cruise ship into the Atlantic Ocean, about 186 miles east of Jacksonville.