Woman Falls Overboard Celebrity Cruise Ship, Search Suspended

A 40-year-old woman is missing after falling overboard a Celebrity Cruises ship in Alaska’s Inside Passage, prompting a search by the U.S. Coast Guard that has since been suspended.

The captain of the Celebrity Solstice ship reported the woman had fallen in near Eldred Rock in the upper Lynn Canal, Alaska, to the rescuers at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. A cruise ship camera showed her going overboard as the ship sailed from Juneau to Skagway, Alaska, Alaska Public Media reported.

Search efforts included an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a 45-foot response boat, which looked for the woman for more than nine hours. The search area covered 68 square nautical miles, according to KIRO, a CBS affiliate out of Seattle.

“Despite our best efforts to locate the individual, it is with heavy hearts that we make the decision to suspend the search," Coast Guard Lt. Trevor Layman told KIRO. "The decision to suspend active searching is based on a number of factors including weather, sea state, water temperature and other variables.”

Survival time in the Alaskan waters was estimated at 6.19 hours based on water and air temperature, as well as the woman’s age, the Associated Press said.

At the time, the air temperature in Juneau, which is near the search site, was 51 degrees Fahrenheit. The water temperature was 41 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service, as reported by the Associated Press.

The Celebrity Solstice ship, which can hold up to 3,400 passengers and 1,000 crew members, was on its fourth day of a week-long roundtrip sailing from Seattle, Alaska Public Media said.

The woman’s name has not been released, and the incident is still under investigation.