A man died after going overboard from the Carnival Liberty while the ship was sailing from Celebration Key to Nassau, as reported first by WDSU.
A Carnival spokesperson said that the man climbed over his stateroom balcony and jumped overboard into the water. This is an unusually direct statement from Carnival, which typically uses more guarded language in overboard incidents, such as a passenger “went overboard” or “entered the water.”
TMZ reports a life ring was thrown at the man, suggesting he was seen going overboard. A search and rescue operation was then launched by the ship’s crew.
The ship’s crew found the man and retrieved him from the water, but he reportedly “did not survive.” It’s unclear at this time if the man was already dead when he was found or if he passed away later.
Ship tracking data on May 13 shows the Carnival Liberty changed course at roughly 6:45 PM EST and resumed course at around 7:40 PM EST. The man presumably went overboard and was found during this one hour window, although the timeline has not been made public yet.
No information has been released about the man’s identity or the events leading up to him going overboard, other than that he was traveling with his family.
The Carnival Liberty, like all Carnival ships, does not have an automatic man overboard detection system.
This is the 437th person to go overboard from a cruise ship since 2000, according to cruise expert Dr. Ross Klein. The last incident occurred on the Norwegian Breakaway when a crew member died after going overboard off the coast of Cape Cod.
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