Search Abandoned After Queen Mary 2 Crew Member Falls Overboard
August 17, 2015 by Mike Schuler
QM2 file photo: Targn Pleiades / Shutterstock.com A search was launched and later suspended this weekend for a crewmember of Curnard’s Queen Mary 2 cruise liner who fell overboard Saturday off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Canada’s Joint Task Force Atlantic confirmed Saturday that it received a report from the Queen Mary 2 reporting that 26-year-old male crew member had fallen overboard sometime after midnight Saturday roughly 780 km (484 miles) east of St. John’s, NL, prompting a search involving the cruise ship itself and the nearby containership Milan Express. Foggy conditions however prevented an aerial search.
The cruise ship reportedly retraced its course and solicited the help of its passengers to keep look for the man overboard, but the search turned up empty.
The search was called off later Saturday after careful consideration by the JTF Atlantic that any chance of survival in the North Atlantic was exhausted.
According to Canadian media reports, the Queen Mary 2, the flagship of Cunard Line, was traveling from Southampton to New York when the man fell overboard. The ship was due to stop in Halifax on Monday.