He was rescued 20 miles south of Southwest Pass
Rescue efforts were carried out by air and sea. The United States Coast Guard reported it, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a call from the Carnival Valor reporting that a passenger aboard the cruise liner was missing. He was rescued 20 miles south of Southwest Pass, Louisiana.
“We are beyond grateful that this case ended with a positive outcome,” said Lt. Seth Gross, a Sector New Orleans search and rescue mission coordinator. “It took a total team effort from Coast Guard watchstanders, response crews, and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing individual and get him to safety. If not for the alert crew aboard the motor vessel Crinis, this case could have had a much more difficult ending.”
The man vs. hypothermia
The most interesting part of the incident was that he survived in the gulf despite hypothermia. Given the time difference between when the man was last seen and when the Coast Guard was alerted, “we knew that communication with the mariners in the Gulf of Mexico was going to be critical,” Lt. Seth Gross, a search and rescue coordinator for the USCG told CNN on Friday morning.
“This case is unlike anything I’ve been a part of,” Gross also explained CNN. “I think it kind of blows the norm, the normalcy, out of the water here, and really just shows the will to live is something that you need to account for in every search-and-rescue case.”
A man fell down from a cruise ship and survives for 15 hours at sea
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