The US Coast Guard suspended its search on Wednesday for a 72-year-old British woman missing on cruise ship Marella Voyager in the Atlantic. She was last seen aboard the ship on Monday, when it was heading toward the Caribbean.
Staff realised she was missing on Tuesday after noticing her bed untouched, and the ship’s last recorded access to a cabin door was about midday on Monday. The missing report reached the US Coast Guard at about 19:30 EST, more than a day after she was last seen.
Marella Voyager in the Atlantic
The Marella Voyager was carrying around 2,000 passengers and 800 crew when the alarm was raised. It left Malaga on 4 November and is due to arrive in Antigua on Friday before calling at Dominica and finishing in Barbados on Sunday.
The ship continued its crossing rather than turn back to the search area because the US Coast Guard said it did not have enough fuel to return. That left the search centered on a remote part of the North Atlantic, roughly 1,400 nautical miles from Bermuda, while the ship remained about 500 nautical miles from the area where she was believed to have entered the water when the missing report came in.
US Coast Guard and partners
The US Coast Guard said the search ran with help from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center Delgada and the UK's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. It also issued urgent maritime broadcasts asking ships in the area to assist, but multiple commercial vessels contacted were not nearby.
The search was suspended at about 15:50 EST on Wednesday after the international effort was called off. The US Coast Guard said it weighed the size of the search area, the elapsed time between the presumed incident and the report, the lack of available search assets in the remote location, negative results from maritime broadcasts, the sea state and the low likelihood of survival.
Marella Cruises enquiries
Marella Cruises said it was supporting the authorities with their enquiries. The key unanswered point is how she entered the water, while the timeline already shows why the search narrowed quickly: she was last seen on Monday, reported missing on Tuesday and the effort ended on Wednesday.
