MELBOURNE, Fla. – U.S. Coast Guard crews late Monday ended the search for a passenger who jumped off the Carnival Cruise Line ship Mardi Gras about 63 miles offshore of Melbourne, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.
At 1:15 a.m. Saturday, a cruise ship crew member notified Coast Guard watchstanders that a man went overboard. The passenger was identified as Tang Tran, 43, according to a Coast Guard news release.
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Coast Guard personnel and other entities spent 58 hours searching about 2,078 square miles before the effort was suspended.
“This evening I made the difficult decision to suspend the search for Mr. Tran,” Capt. Mark Vlaun, who commands Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville, said in the Monday press release.
“We are grateful to Carnival for the swift response and support to the family. Our deepest condolences go out to Mr. Tran’s family and friends during this difficult time,” Vlaun said.
The Mardi Gras was heading to Port Canaveral on Saturday morning.
Coast Guard personnel deployed three cutters — the Legare, Heron and Ibis — and an HC-144 Ocean Sentry surveillance plane from Air Station Miami during the search for Tran.
“The Coast Guard makes the decision to suspend active searching based on a number of variables including weather, water temperature, sea state, and other factors,” Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville personnel said in a Monday afternoon email.
“The timeline for each search will vary based on the specific incident,” the email said.
About 1 a.m. Saturday, April 9, crew members aboard the Carnival Magic notified the Coast Guard of a distress call from a man whose sailboat was disabled about 69 miles off Port Canaveral, the cruise line said in a press release. The stranded mariner was rescued.
The Mardi Gras was christened during an October naming ceremony at Port Canaveral Cruise Terminal 3. The ship sails on six-, seven- and eight-day excursions to the eastern and western Caribbean.
The Mardi Gras is Carnival’s newest and biggest ship with 17 passenger decks, double-occupancy capacity of 5,282 and full capacity of 6,465, with a crew of 1,745.