Personal Injury Law

Ala. Woman Reportedly Goes Overboard on Cruise Ship

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

MOBILE, Ala. - The Coast Guard sent out ships and aircraft to search the Gulf of Mexico for an Alabama woman who reportedly went overboard from a cruise ship early Tuesday.

Michelle Vilborg, 50, of Bay Minette was reported overboard by the Carnival Holiday at 12:04 a.m. CDT Tuesday, the Coast Guard said. The ship was about 75 miles southwest of Pensacola, Fla., at the time.

Carnival Corp. said a passenger reported hearing a splash in the water about 11 p.m. CDT, prompting a cabin-by-cabin search aboard the Holiday. Crew members lowered lifeboats to look for the woman but found nothing.

The Coast Guard search included two cutters, two airplanes and a helicopter.

The Holiday, with a capacity of 1,452 passengers, is due back in Mobile on Saturday after a five-day trip to the Yucatan Peninsula.

Vilborg's disappearance marked at least the third time in less than a month that a passenger went overboard from a Carnival ship based on the Gulf Coast.

A 46-year-old man who fell off the Carnival Inspiration was recused early Monday as it returned to port in Tampa, Fla. The man, who was found clinging to a buoy, told authorities he slipped after climbing on a railing to get a better view of the pilot boat.

A Louisiana teenager on a high school graduation cruise aboard the Carnival Fantasy out of New Orleans went over the rails on May 24 about 150 miles southwest of Tampa, Fla. Authorities suspended a search after two days without locating his body.

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).