U.S. Coast Guard searches for missing cruise crew member

[January 25, 2019]    (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard was searching for a missing crew member from a Royal Caribbean ship early Friday after witnesses reported seeing the 26-year-old man fall overboard Thursday morning off the southern coast of Florida, multiple media accounts reported.

Exactly a month ago, another Royal Caribbean crew member went overboard in the Atlantic, off Puerto Rico, and was never found.

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd was not available for comment early Friday. Neither was a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard 7th District, which patrols the Florida coast.

At about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, as the Majesty of the Seas ship was about 37 miles off the Florida coast and headed for Port Everglades, fellow crew members said they saw the man going overboard, a cruise line spokesman told the Miami Herald and other media. The man was not immediately identified.

Officers on the Miami-based ship immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard and also began a search, the spokesperson said.

The Coast Guard took over the search about 7 a.m. and the cruise ship continued into port.

The crewman lost in December from Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas was 20-year-old Briton Aaron Hough.

Hough was a cast member of the musical "Grease", which was being performed onboard the ship, according to the Miami Herald.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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