An urgent search operation is underway for a missing “girl in pink pyjamas” who is believed to have fallen overboard from a luxury cruise ship in the Mediterranean, according to reports.
The cruise ship departed from Cannes, France, on June 7 and was making its way to its next stop in Palma, Majorca, for the morning of June 8.
But at around 8:30 a.m. local time, the ship turned back after the captain announced that a passenger was thought to have fallen overboard.
Cruise Norwegian, which operated the Norwegian Epic tour, said in a statement on June 8, “Early this morning, a report was made that an adult guest went overboard while the ship was sailing to Spain.”
“The authorities were immediately notified & a search and rescue operation ensued. The search remains underway. Our thoughts and prayers are with the individual’s family,” the company added.
Passenger Rebekah Sanderlin said that she and fellow passengers had spent the day searching for the missing teenager.
“I’m on the Norwegian Epic cruiseship in the Mediterranean & we’ve spent all day looking for a passenger who fell overboard last night. People are saying it was an American teenaged girl,” she tweeted.
“Her parents are the ones who alerted the crew that she was missing. Every passenger on the ship has been searching the waters for her for approx [sic] eight hours.”
“I think if she was on board she would have been located by now,” she added.
The missing passenger is believed to have gone overboard around 40 miles northwest of Minorca. A distress warning was sent out to all navigators in the region.
At dawn, Maritime Rescue received an urgent call to assist with locating the missing girl and several boats, a helicopter and a plane were sent out to aid with the search.
Sanderlin told the Weather Channel that the ship returned to the area where the passenger was thought to have fallen and has remained stationary since.
“At about 8:30 a.m., the captain came on the speaker and said the ship was turning around to go back to look for a passenger who he said they had ‘good evidence’ had gone overboard.
“After about two hours of sailing, he came on the speaker again and said that we were in the area where she went overboard.”
Sanderlin added that the passengers had been directed by the captain to look for her in the water from the deck railings, and that she was last seen in pink pyjamas.
“He did not tell us her age or any other details,” she added. “Thousands of passengers stood at the rails looking for hours. We have stayed in that location, not moving, all day.”
“There are some planes flying overhead but I do not see any other ships or boats.”
Sanderlin told the Weather Channel that crew members had told passengers she had last been seen by her parents at around 1 a.m.
“Supposedly, her parents went to sleep around 1 a.m. while she was sitting on their balcony. When they awoke this morning they couldn’t find her and alerted the ship’s crew, who supposedly confirmed with camera footage that she was last seen entering her cabin,” Sanderlin said.
Since the incident, the cruise ship’s port call to Majorca has been canceled and the ship is expected to make its way to Barcelona on June 9.
