Carnival Valor: Search on for handcuffed woman who jumped off cruise ship after hot tub row
An unidentified 32-year-old woman jumped off from a Carnival Valor cruise ship after security detained her for getting into a disturbance with a man in the hot tub. The African-American woman jumped from Deck 10 of the ship at 2:30 pm on February 16, Wednesday, after she broke free from handcuffs that security had put her in after detaining her.
Other passengers present on the ship at the time of the incident reported seeing the woman hitting her head on a lifeboat before falling in the waters. Some passengers also reported seeing her landing in the water "face-first". It is unclear as to why she decided to jump off the ship but witnesses claim that she was visibly upset after her fight with a man in the hot tub.
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One man, who was also a passenger on the ship, claimed that the woman had been "causing problems for everybody on the ship for the entire trip." According to him, the woman allegedly "threw a water bottle at a security guard and even proceeded to attack another security guard shortly after."
The 952-foot, 110,000-ton Carnival Valor can carry 2,980 passengers and 180 crew members. It has 13 decks and was built in 2004 before being refurbished in 2008. The ship departed from Mexican shores around 3:27 pm on Tuesday and was expected to arrive in New Orleans on Thursday morning. According to passengers who were on board, the ship had gone back to the spot where the woman jumped in an attempt to find and help her after news of her jumping off made its way to the authorities present on the ship.
US Coast Guards are now searching for the woman approximately 150 miles off the Louisiana coast where the incident took place. Two helicopter crews have been deployed to help try and locate the woman in the Gulf of Mexico. So far, no information has been found about the woman any further. The woman has not been rescued yet and the search for her is still on.