Brian Lamonds Missing From Carnival Cruise Ship That Left Tampa
The U.S. Coast Guard says that Brian Lamonds of Greensboro, North Carolina, is missing from a Carnival Cruise ship that was headed to the Caribbean on a six-day voyage after leaving Tampa, Florida, on Monday.
Lamonds, 50, reportedly went overboard this morning from the ship when it was located 85 miles west of Fort Myers, CBS affiliate WFMY News 2 reported. The Coast Guard has deployed assets such as a Jayhawk helicopter, aircraft, and a cutter to assist in the search of the Gulf of Mexico from stations in Clearwater, Miami, and Key West.
In a statement, the Coast Guard indicated that “Coast Guard Key West watchstanders received a call at approximately 10 a.m. from the cruise ship stating the man was missing and reportedly went overboard from the Carnival Paradise.”
Obviously, all the facts have yet to emerge, but the CruiseLaw website claims that some questions may surround the 10 a.m. notification. “It is less than clear whether this refers to when the man went overboard, or the location of the ship when Carnival realized that a guest was missing, or the location when the Coast Guard was finally notified.” Surveillance video may be available to document when the man apparently fell off the ship, the same website suggests.
The website also claims that a passenger sent out a tweet this morning at approximately 10:30 that the ship’s crew was conducting a cabin-to-cabin search for a missing passenger.
A Carnival official told Fox 13 of Tampa Bay that the company is fully cooperating with authorities and added that “Our Care Team is providing support and assistance to the guest’s family.”
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a North Carolina man who was reported missing from a Carnival cruise ship on Tuesday.https://t.co/tA74ZWFikR
— WWAY News (@WWAY) May 22, 2018
According to National Geographic, about 300 cruise-ship travelers have fallen overboard from the year 2000 to 2016. Last year, 17 of such instances occurred, and as of last month, five individiuals have gone overboard in 2018. Approximately 20 million vacationers go on cruises each year.
Given these statistics, NatGeo maintains that falling overboard is extremely rare on a cruise ship. A Miami law firm contends that the actual number could be somewhat higher “because the cruise industry and the media do not always report on overboard incidents.”
In January, a woman who was on her first cruise tragically fell overboard from the Carnival Triumph that was in transit from New Orleans to Mexico, the Miami Herald reported.
The man overboard from a Carnival cruise ship is a developing story with a lot of information as yet unavailable at this time; please check back with the Inquisitr for updates on the search.
