The search for a British woman who is believed to have gone overboard from a cruise ship while it was crossing the Atlantic has been suspended, the US Coast Guard (USCG) has said.
The 72-year-old was last seen aboard Tui’s Marella Voyager on Monday while the vessel was en route to the Caribbean. Staff realised she was missing on Tuesday, when they noticed her “bed untouched”.
USCG said the ship was approximately 500 nautical miles from the area where she was believed to entered the water when it received a missing report.
It added that a coordinated international search and rescue effort had been called off on Wednesday due to factors including “the low likelihood of survival”.
USCG said the woman was last recorded accessing a cabin door at about midday on Monday. She is believed to have gone overboard in a remote area of the North Atlantic, roughly 1,400 nautical miles from Bermuda.
In a previous statement, Tui said that after staff realised she was missing, the alarm was raised and a search carried out.
The Daily Mail earlier reported that holidaymakers on board the ship had been told to abandon dinners, drinks and entertainment as the crew carried out an emergency headcount on Tuesday evening.
Passengers stood in lines of four while staff scanned boarding cards to verify the identity of every person on the ship, according to the newspaper.
In a statement, USCG confirmed it had received a missing report at about 19:30 EST (00:30 GMT) on Tuesday.
The coast guard said staff also reported that the Marella did not have enough fuel to return to the search area. It is understood that USCG asked the ship to continue its crossing rather than reverse course and search for the woman.
It said that volunteers from the coast guard then worked with search and rescue partners including the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center Delgada and the UK’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, and issued urgent maritime broadcasts requesting assistance from ships in the area.
It added that multiple commercial vessels were contacted as part of the operation to “consider search opportunities, but none were in the vicinity”.
Search efforts were suspended at about 15:50 EST (20:50 GMT) on Wednesday, “after considering the extensive search area, the elapsed time between the presumed incident and notification, the lack of available search assets in the remote location, negative results from maritime broadcasts, the sea state, and the low likelihood of survival”, the coast guard said.
The Marella Voyager, carrying around 2,000 passengers and 800 crew, left Malaga on 4 November and is due to arrive in Antigua on Friday before calling at Dominica and finishing its voyage in Barbados on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for Marella Cruises earlier said it was supporting the authorities with their enquiries. It added it was “deeply saddened” by the disappearance, adding: “Our thoughts are with the guest’s loved ones at this very difficult time.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said in an earlier statement: “We are supporting the family of a British national reported missing on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean and we are in touch with the relevant authorities.”
In a separate case, a cruise ship pianist was found treading water on Sunday around 20 miles off the Californian coast after falling overboard.
Two fishermen discovered the Royal Caribbean employee near Catalina Island and officials believe he may have been in the Pacific Ocean for nine hours, according to CBS News, the ‘s US news partner.