The Carnival Valor cruise ship sails from New Orleans.
Carnival Cruise Line
A 28-year-old man fell overboard off a Carnival cruise ship and survived 22 hours of treading water.
The US Coast Guard rescued him via helicopter Thursday night, calling it a “Thanksgiving miracle.”
Watch video footage of the man spotted waving his arms in the water, then lifted by helicopter.
A US Coast Guard helicopter rescued a man who fell overboard from a Carnival cruise ship off the coast of New Orleans on Thursday evening.
The 28-year-old survived up to 22 hours treading water in the Gulf of Mexico and was responsive when rescued, according to the Coast Guard. The agency’s 8th District reported that the man was in stable condition on Friday.
“This is an exceptionally rare case,” Ryan Graves, a petty officer in public affairs with the 8th District, told The Washington Post. “It’s really nothing short of a Thanksgiving miracle to be able to pick somebody up after that long in the water without any sort of flotation device.”
The Coast Guard shared video of the rescue, below, including footage of the man floundering in the sea and waving his arms.
“Cruise ships have safety barriers in all public areas that are regulated by US Coast Guard standards and prevent a guest from falling off,” Matt Lupoli, a public relations officer for Carnival Cruise Line, told Insider via email.
“Guests should never climb up on the rails. The only way to go overboard is to purposefully climb up and over the safety barriers,” Lupoli added.
The man was last seen aboard the Carnival Valor at 11 p.m. local time on Wednesday, when he left his sister at the ship’s bar to go to the restroom, according to a statement from Carnival.
At noon the following day — Thanksgiving — the sister reported him missing, since he hadn’t returned to his stateroom, according to the statement. Announcements calling for the missing passenger rang out across the ship, and staff searched the vessel for him, until a last call was made at 2 p.m., according to CNN. At 2:30 p.m., the ship reported the missing passenger to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard said it deployed “several rescue crews,” and Carnival said the Valor “retraced its route to support the search and rescue.”
Meanwhile, a bulk carrier called CRINIS was scanning the sea and spotted somebody drifting in the waters about 20 miles south of Southwest Pass, Louisiana, according the CNN.
Finally, at 8:25 p.m. — nearly 22 hours after he was last seen — the man was lifted from the sea. Lieutenant Seth Gross, a Coast Guard search-and-rescue coordinator, told CNN that the man “was showing signs of hypothermia, shock, dehydration,” but could walk, communicate, and identify himself.
“The fact that he was able to keep himself afloat and above the surface of the water for such an extended period of time, it’s just something you can’t take for granted and certainly something that’ll stick with me forever,” Gross told CNN.
“This case is unlike anything I’ve been a part of,” he added.