Search suspended for man who went overboard Carnival cruise ship

Coast Guard helicopter, airplane covered 1,381 miles over 9-hour search

MIAMI – The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday for a 24-year-old man who reportedly went overboard Monday morning from the Carnival Elation cruise ship about 15 miles southwest of Abaco, Bahamas.

Carnival Elation left Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon and docked in Nassau, Bahamas, Tuesday morning.

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The Coast Guard's 7th District Command Center was notified that the wife of Kevin Wellons, of Warner Robins, Georgia, reported him missing at 8:30 a.m. Monday. According to a statement from Carnival, Wellons' wife said he was last seen about 2:30 a.m. and she reported him missing after the ship docked in Nassau.

The ship's crew reviewed closed-circuit TV and could see that Wellons went overboard from the 11th deck about 2:45 a.m. At the time, the ship was approximately 14 nautical miles northeast of Great Harbor Cay in the Bahamas. 

Both Bahamian and U.S. authorities have been notified. 

A Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew deployed to Great Inagua and HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crews from Air Station Miami covered more than 1,381 square miles over nine hours searching for Robins.

"Carnival’s CareTeam is providing support to the missing guest’s family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this very difficult time," a statement from the cruise line said. 

A Jacksonville-based travel expert said situations like this are not common, because barriers are in place to prevent them.

"These are very isolated incidents, mostly due to alcohol consumption, or if someone has a mental issue, they may jump overboard, but again, these are very rare and isolated incidents," said Scott Lara, of Air Sea Travel.

Lara said despite their rarity, cruise lines are prepared to handle such situations properly.

“Anytime there’s an incident like this on a cruise ship, federal and state authorities will be onboard to investigate it to get a resolution to what happened for the family members and to make sure that these things don’t happen again -- safety procedures and so forth,” Lara said. “But if someone is going on a cruise, today or tomorrow, is it safe? Absolutely.”

Carnival Elation is based year-round in Jacksonville and departed late Saturday afternoon on a five-day Bahamas cruise. It is expected to return to Jacksonville on Thursday morning.