Search Abandoned After Queen Mary 2 Crew Member Goes Overboard

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, prompting a search involving the cruise ship 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 a lookout 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.

The Queen Mary 2 was traveling from Southampton to New York when the man went overboard. The ship was due to stop in Halifax on Monday.

Update: The Telegraph reports that Cunard has now banned the use of alcohol amongst crew members of the ship and that the missing, a cook, reportedly threw himself from the ship.