Woman dies after falling overboard from cruise ship
A WOMAN, believed to be in her 20s, died after going overboard from a cruise ship north of Alderney in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The MSC Virtuosa was heading back to Southampton after a two-week cruise of ports in Spain when the incident happened. The French coastguard received a ‘man overboard’ alert soon after midnight.
Channel Islands Air Search was called to assist with the search at about 1.20am.
Search director Gareth Le Page said that the Lion’s Pride, with a crew of five, was airborne inside about half an hour.
‘Bearing in mind that we had to wait for Air Traffic Control and the Fire Service, it was a very quick response,’ he said.
Joining it in the search was a French Navy helicopter, Beligou Yankee, and the operation was coordinated by the Jobourg Marine Rescue Coordination Centre in France.CIAS arrived at the scene at about 2.20am and started searching using an infra-red camera.
Conditions were good, said Mr Le Page.
‘The sea was quite smooth and we had great visibility for what we were doing,’ he said.
The casualty was spotted at 2.33am.
‘The French Navy helicopter was tasked to search one area and we were tasked to search another, and the helicopter found them in their search pattern.’
The Lions’ Pride remained in the area to observe the winching operation of the casualty before being stood down and it landed back in Guernsey at 3am.
After being winched aboard the helicopter the woman was taken to a rescue centre in Tourlaville but was pronounced dead on arrival.
MSC Virtuosa docked in Southampton just after 8am. It sailed again yesterday morning, heading to Cobh in Ireland.
A spokeswoman for Hampshire Police said its officers and some from the Isle of Wight were assisting with inquiries but the investigation is not being handled by the UK authorities.
An MSC Cruises spokeswoman confirmed that the woman was a passenger.
‘A guest on board MSC Virtuosa went overboard on 12 October, while the ship was sailing to Southampton,’ she said.
‘The body was later recovered with the involvement of the authorities. We are deeply saddened by this tragic event, and our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time.’
