A 35 year old man went missing after falling overboard while traveling aboard a Carnival Magic cruise liner. The incident occurred on May 30, according to a Tweet from the United States Coast Guard Southeast.
The Tweet announced that the United States Coast Guard had begun efforts to search for and find the man, saying that the group is using air and water assets to search for and locate the castaway.
#Breaking @USCG crews are searching for a 35 year-old man who went overboard from the Carnaval Magic cruise ship 186 miles east of #Jacksonville, Monday.
The Coast Guard is utilizing both air and water assets to conduct the search.#USCG #Florida #SAR pic.twitter.com/qH70gDBRAp
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) May 30, 2023
In a follow-up post shortly after, the United States Coast Guard announced that efforts would continue into the night, saying, “air assets until sunset and water assets throughout the night. The total area searched by Coast Guard crews is 4,044 square miles and 19 hours of resource search hours.”
As the search and rescue operation has developed, the United States Coast Guard Southeast Twitter account has continued to provide updates. In the next update, posted on the morning of May 31, there was still no sign of the man who fell overboard. It was announced that air assets would again search for the man once the day began and readers were reassured that water assets searched through the night.
As of now, only one more update has been released regarding this operation. At roughly noon on May 31, the Coast Guard said, “crews are actively searching for the 35 year-old man off #Jacksonville. The total area searched by Coast Guard crews is 5,000 square miles and over 40 hours of resource search hours.”
In a posting on Gofundme, a woman named Jennilyn Blosser posted a fundraiser for the funeral costs of the man, identifying him as Ronnie Peale. Blosser, Peale’s significant other, said that the couple went on the cruise to celebrate her birthday. She says that this was Peale’s first-ever cruise. Blosser continued on, speaking about the man that she knew Peale to be. She Wrote:
This was Ronnie’s first cruise and thankfully he had a great time and made plenty of friends. He is our social butterfly that was always on the move and loved to make friends with everyone. The cruise was definitely a place he enjoyed. I never could of imagine something like this could happen. Devastated to say the least.
A company spokesperson for Carnival reviewed security footage around the time of the incident to find the cause of the passenger falling overboard. They said:
“…an initial review of closed circuit security footage confirms that he leaned over the railing of his stateroom balcony and dropped into the water at approximately 4:10 am early Monday morning.”
Another passenger on the ship noted that a search and rescue effort took place aboard the ship, where crew searched each floor and room to find Peale without success. Leevon Porter said, “There was a security team storming each deck, each floor, concerned. But eventually, they let everybody know that he wasn’t found.”
Featured image credit: GoFundMe
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