The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a man who fell overboard on a Carnival cruise ship about 200 miles from Florida.
The incident occurred around 4 a.m. on Monday when Ronnie Lee Peale Jr., 35, fell from The Carnival Magic into the water, his fiancé Jennilyn Michelle Blosser told WTKR.
“An initial review of closed circuit security footage confirms that he leaned over the railing of his stateroom balcony and dropped into the water at approximately 4:10 am early Monday morning,” Carnival said in a statement.
The ship was around 186 miles east of Jacksonville at the time. On Tuesday, the Coast Guard said it had already searched more than 4,000 square miles.
Blosser reported him missing later Monday.
“The Carnival Care Team is providing support to the guest’s companion and traveling party who are on board,” the company said.
The ship had left Norfolk, Va. on May 25, sailed to the Bahamas and returned to port on Tuesday as the search for Peale continued.
“This was Ronnie’s first cruise and thankfully he had a great time and made plenty of friends. He is our social butterfly that was always on the move and loved to make friends with everyone. The cruise was definitely a place he enjoyed. I never could of imagine something like this could happen,” Blosser wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for Peale’s funeral.
The incident occurred hours after another Carnival cruise ship took on water while sailing through stormy and rough seas on the way back from the Bahamas.
There have already been several incidents involving people falling from or on cruise ships in 2023. In April, a man jumped overboard from a Carnival ship that was returning to Port Canaveral, Fla. Earlier that month, a woman died after she fell from a balcony onto the deck of a Virgin Voyages ship. Another passenger fell overboard from a Royal Caribbean ship off the coast of Hawaii in late April.