Coast Guard searching for man who jumped from Carnival cruise ship

NEW ORLEANS (WAFB/Gray News) - The United States Coast Guard is searching the Gulf of Mexico for a man reported missing from the Carnival Glory cruise ship, WAFB reports.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the passenger who is unaccounted for was identified by family members as 28-year-old Tyler Lee Barnett, of Houma, Louisiana.

In a statement issued Tuesday, a spokesperson with Carnival Cruise Lines confirmed the Glory’s security team began an “immediate search” of the ship after a guest was reported missing Monday morning by a family member.

“The Carnival Glory security team has confirmed that after multiple reviews of the shipboard surveillance video, it appears that the guest reported missing on Monday jumped from the ship’s Deck 4 at approximately 1:40 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 13. He can be seen climbing on a lifeboat and jumping from there. Only on Tuesday were we advised of the possibility of him wearing a different shirt, which allowed our security team to change the profile of the guest as we searched onboard video,” Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement.

The ship was cleared to proceed to Montego Bay, Jamaica, as scheduled and is expected to arrive on Wednesday.

The Coast Guard confirmed that air crews spent several hours Monday off Louisiana’s coast after the man was reported missing. It searched a 200-square-mile area of the Gulf of Mexico.

Barnett’s sister, who is on the cruise ship, posted that he was last seen Sunday at 11:40 p.m. and that an onboard search started Monday around 7 a.m.

The Carnival Glory left port in New Orleans on Sunday for a weeklong cruise with planned stops in Montego Bay on Wednesday, Grand Cayman Island on Thursday and Cozumel on Friday before returning to New Orleans on Nov. 19.

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