Call him the luckiest cruise ship worker on the high seas.
A crew member who plunged off a Norwegian Cruise Line ship on Saturday and was feared lost was rescued Sunday by another cruise ship sailing the same route.
Carnival says the crew of its 2,980-passenger Carnival Glory found and rescued the unnamed, 33-year-old Norwegian Getaway staffer on Sunday afternoon about 21 miles north of Cuba. He had been in the water for nearly 24 hours.
The crew member is being treated by Glory's shipboard medical team, Carnival said. A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard said he was in stable condition.
Glory departed Miami on Saturday and was at sea en route to Cozumel, Mexico on Sunday afternoon when a hotel steward on the ship spotted the Norwegian crew member floating in the water, Carnival says. The hotel steward notified bridge officers who initiated rescue operations, including reducing speed, reversing course and lowering a lifeboat to retrieve the man.
“This is nothing short of miraculous,” Carnival president Christine Duffy said in a statement. “Kudos to the Carnival Glory team for this amazing effort to rescue a fellow seafarer.”
A passenger on the Glory tweeted that there were "tears & cheers" on the ship as the man was being recovered.
The Coast Guard on Saturday had launched a major search and rescue operation with boats and planes after Norwegian reported the crew member missing. Coast Guard assets on Saturday and Sunday searched more than 1,630 square miles for the man.
The incident is currently under investigation, the Coast Guard said.
Glory is on a seven-day Western Caribbean cruise.
