Carnival Cruise Line passenger rescued after 15 hours at sea

A Carnival Cruise Line passenger sailing off the Gulf of Mexico went missing overboard, only to be rescued more than 15 hours later.

The 28-year-old passenger was at a bar on Carnival Valor with his sister when he went to use the bathroom but did not return.

Crew members searched the area, only to eventually fid him approximately 30 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana. He is in a stable condition.

“[It’s] just one of those Thanksgiving miracles,” Lieutenant Seth Gross of the US Coast Guard, told CNN.

Gross said the man’s long stint in the water was the “absolute longest that I’ve ever heard about.”

His sister did not report him missing until midday the next day, causing the ship, which was bound for Cozumel, Mexico, to retrace its steps toward New Orleans.

The man was found at 8:25 pm that evening after someone who had spotted him tipped off Carnival about his whereabouts.

News.com.au reported that when he was found he showed signs of hypothermia, shock and dehydration and was subsequently rushed to hospital. The man told rescuers that he wasn’t sure how he fell overboard.

“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,” Gross told CNN.

“He realistically could have been in the water for 15-plus hours before we were able to successfully rescue him,” Gross said.

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