A 34-year-old Filipino cruise ship worker intentionally jumped overboard Monday night about 1,133 miles northeast of Hilo, a company official said.
Julie Benson, spokeswoman for Princess Cruises of Santa Clarita, Calif., said Tuesday the incident was captured by the closed-circuit video system on the Grand Princess.
An HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Barbers Point Air Station conducted a search for the man, who was last seen at 10:26 p.m. Monday. The cruise ship, which was headed to Hawaii island, changed course and has assisted with the search. The Star Princess, another of the cruise line’s vessels, has also helped, along with the container ship Horizon Reliance.
Benson said the cruise line’s two ships would help with the search for the missing crew member through sunset Tuesday.
The Grand Princess left San Francisco Saturday on a 15-day cruise. It was halfway between San Francisco and Hilo on Monday night when the incident occurred, Benson said.
The ship is scheduled to return to the West Coast on Jan. 19 and is carrying about 2,600 passengers and 1,088 crew members. It had been scheduled to dock in Hilo on Thursday and make port calls in Honolulu, Kauai and Maui before returning to San Francisco.
Coast Guard officials said wind in the search area was about 20 mph, seas were about 7 feet high and the water temperature was about 70 degrees.
Monday’s incident marked the second report of someone aboard the Grand Princess intentionally jumping overboard. In November a 54-year-old woman jumped from the vessel about 650 miles northeast of Hilo. At the time, the Grand Princess was on day three of a 15-day, round-trip cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii.
The woman’s body was never recovered.
