A search operation has been launched following reports that a crew member went missing from the cruise ship Liberty of the Seas some 170 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, on April 24.
According to the United States Coast Guard, Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Eighth District command center in New Orleans received a report at 4:30 am that a 39-year-old Filipino crew member was missing and was last seen at 1:30 am on the ship’s closed-circuit television.
An HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Air Station Corpus Christi as well as the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Manowar, an 87-foot patrol boat from Galveston, were deployed to conduct the search operation.
Maritime Lawyer Jim Walker informed that the three hour delay between the last images of the crew member on CCTV and the reporting of the missing crew member could mean that the cruise ship “was not equipped with an automatic man overboard system.”