A passenger is missing after reportedly falling overboard from the 15th floor of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship while a woman, on the same cruise, died from a medical emergency the day before.
The missing passenger is a man from Australia, who fell into the water at 11pm Tuesday night around 500 nautical miles from Kailua, Kona in Hawaii. "The ship's crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities," Royal Caribbean International said, according to Yahoo!.
"Three medical emergencies and now a man overboard. We have slowed down and are now turning around. Hope they are found," passenger Joshua Reynolds wrote on Facebook, insinuating that along with the fatal medical situation, two other medical emergencies have taken place on the Quantum of the Seas ship, which is scheduled to arrive in Hawaii on April 28th.
"After about 2.5 hours they called it," Reynolds later posted. "It was pitch black. They had tossed half a dozen life vests in the water with the automatic beacons. Nothing. The seas weren't very pleasant. One of the guys on the 15 ft rescue boat looked like he got sick."
From 7news.com.au:
The ship had departed Brisbane on April 12 for a two-week cruise to the Hawaiian Islands before tragedy struck with a huge air and sea search so far failing to find any trace of the missing man.
Ivan Rukavina, from Melbourne, who is currently on the cruise, told 7NEWS.com.au he heard "Oscar Oscar Oscar" over the ships' loudspeaker — a code meaning man overboard.
Following the incident, crew members attempted to lower lifeboats into the water.
Rukavina said crew were "frantically" trying to get the lights on the lifeboats to work.
"I heard someone say 'there's no lights'," he said.
Meanwhile, a search and rescue effort took place for about 2½ hours, before the cruise resumed its trip towards Honolulu.
Rukavina said the US Coast Guard had now taken over search efforts to locate the man.
Top image: myphotobank.com.au / shutterstock.com
