Authorities say a man missing from a Carnival cruise ship is thought to have dove into the Gulf of Mexico.
According to cruise line officials, the guy who vanished from a Carnival cruise ship on Monday in the Gulf of Mexico is now thought to have jumped.
According to a statement from Carnival, at around 1:40 a.m. on Monday, surveillance footage shows the guy, 28-year-old Tyler Lee Barnett of Houma, Louisiana, jumping from a lifeboat on the fourth deck of the Carnival Glory.
Barnett was first seen on board the ship about midnight on Monday, according to an initial analysis of security footage. However, officials then claimed that Barnett had changed his attire, which affected the results of the video search.
Carnival said in a statement, “Only on Tuesday were we informed of the possibility of him wearing a different shirt, which allowed our security team to change the guest’s profile as we searched onboard video.”
The United States Coast Guard sent two aircraft and conducted a search on Monday night after Barnett was first reported missing. Because of “the uncertainty of the potential time of him falling overboard,” rescue workers were scouring a region of over 200 miles along the ship’s route, according to the Coast Guard.
The search for the missing person was put on hold overnight because to gale-force winds and waves between 8 and 12 feet, according to the Coast Guard. However, on Tuesday morning, an HC-144 Ocean Sentry was sent out to continue the search.
Barnett’s mother stated in an interview with WVUE in New Orleans that her son was a passionate fisherman and the father of twin girls who are three years old.
“I continue to pray that they locate his body before the water animals capture him. Elisha Reid expressed her desire to be able to bury her son to the outlet. “He loved the water and he loved to fish, so that’s the only way I can have peace with him lost at sea.” I’ll take it knowing he’s back on the water, where he truly loved to be. And he’s got the fish he enjoyed catching with him.
According to the story, Reid added that she thought her son had been drinking when he slipped from the lifeboat instead of jumping from it.
When Barnett vanished, the Glory was en route from New Orleans to Montego Bay, Jamaica. According to Carnival, the cruise is a seven-day journey around the Western Caribbean. The Coast Guard gave the ship the all-clear to proceed to Montego Bay, where it was expected to dock on Wednesday.