Coast Guard Recovers Man-Overboard Victim off Neah Bay

On Tuesday afternoon, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew recovered an unresponsive individual who went overboard from the cruise ship Seven Seas Mariner off Neah Bay, Washington. 

At about 0430 hours, the crew of the Mariner informed the Coast Guard that a 73-year-old male passenger had gone over the side. The cruise ship circled back and began a search pattern, and the USCG mounted a SAR effort in conjunction with Canadian authorities. A Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles aircrew, two Station Neah Bay boat crews, the Coast Guard cutter Wahoo and a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter crew searched the area before locating and recovering the individual.

The helicopter crew transferred the victim to EMS personnel on shore, and he was taken to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles for treatment. He was later pronounced deceased. 

“We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victim who were affected by this tragedy,” said Capt. M.M. Balding, Sector Puget Sound's  commanding officer. “Any time we are unable to accomplish our goal of saving lives, we are deeply saddened. Our thoughts are with them in their time of grief.”

The man was last seen on board at 0400 hours, and his wife reported that she woke at 0430 to find him missing and the balcony door cracked open. An early USCG report indicated that shipboard video footage showed the victim "jumping" from his eighth-deck balcony. However, this initial report was not accurate, the Coast Guard said: in a social media post, Sector Puget Sound wrote that an investigation will determine what led to the man-overboard incident, and that it has no clear information on the root cause at this time.