Dramatic moment Carnival Cruise man, 28, is saved from Gulf of Mexico

This is the dramatic moment a 28-year-old man is hoisted out of the Gulf of Mexico 15 hours after he fell off a Carnival Cruise Line ship. The incredible footage, released by the US Coast Guard on Friday night, shows the man desperately trying to keep his head above the swelling waves.

He vanishes for seconds at a time but manages to claw himself back above the swirling water off the coast of Louisiana. Rescuers finally managed to drag him out the water using a basket suspended from a helicopter in the darkness at 8.25pm. The Coast Guard said he was suffering from hypothermia and dehydration, but was able to identify himself as the man who had disappeared.

 It comes after a tanker spotted the man – who has not been named – flailing in the water earlier in the evening. He had disappeared on November 24 after falling off the Carnival Valor cruise ship following a boozy night on the deck.

The dramatic new footage, which the rescuers tweeted out late on Friday, showed the daring mission to save the man from the freezing waters off Southwest Pass.

 The almost pitch black clip shows Coast Guard officers scrambling to get to him as he is chucked around by the stormy sea. They carefully lower a basket from the helicopter and he fails to cling on to it several times before finally finding his grip. He is then winched up towards the helicopter and bundled into the chopper before being medically evaluated. The Coast Guard said he was suffering from hypothermia as well as shock and dehydration but was in a stable condition.

They also revealed he told them he was the man who had disappeared overboard, but was unable to reveal how he toppled into the ocean. He also gave them his name, yet it has not been released publicly. The man was airlifted to New Orleans and is being treated at the hospital. 

The man was last seen at the Carnival Valor’s bar with his sister before he left to use the restroom at around 11pm on Wednesday and did not return. His sister waited until noon the next day to report him missing, according to KPLC 7.

The ship was searched, but he was not found. The crew called the Coast Guard at 2.30pm. 

‘We have not been able to confirm when he entered the water, so we’re under the assumption [that] any point from Wednesday on, he could have entered the waterway,’ Gross (pictured) told CNN. ‘He realistically could have been in the water for 15+ hours before we were able to successfully rescue him.’ The ship had backtracked toward New Orleans to support the US Coast Guard, before returning on its path to Cozumel, Mexico, after being released from the search. 

The man was spotted by another vessel and picked up by helicopter roughly 20 miles south of the Southwest Pass in Louisiana at 8.25pm. It is unclear how long he spent in the sea. The temperature of the water near New Orleans is about 70 degrees. Gross said the rescue mission was complicated ‘given the time difference from when he was last seen to when the Coast Guard received notification.’ They sent out an emergency message to all mariners in the Gulf and ‘launched all available resources,’ which included a small boat, helicopter, and airplanes that covered 200 miles of an ‘active search’ area. ‘Time was paramount,’ Gross told CNN. 

Carnival provided support to his family while he was missing. His family remains onboard the cruise ship and Gross said he spoke with them. Throughout his 17-year career, Gross said this mission was ‘unlike anything I’ve been a part of.’ ‘I think this blows normalcy out of the water here,’ Gross told the outlet. ‘The will to live is something you have to account for in every search and rescue case. ‘This is one of the absolutely longest I’ve heard about and one of those Thanksgiving miracles.’ 

Mike Anderson, who was a passenger on the ship, said he saw cruise staff searching for the man and heard announcements about a missing person. ‘[I] noticed security starting to search the boat with a photo of the missing [passenger] in their phones,’ he told CNN. Carnival told DailyMail.com in a statement on Friday: ‘We greatly appreciate the efforts of all, most especially the US Coast Guard and the mariner who spotted the guest in the water.’ The ship will sail to Progreso, on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, before returning to the States on Monday. The five-day cruise started in New Orleans before arriving in Cozumel by day three. The next day passengers visit another port before returning to Louisiana.

Earlier this year, a woman, 32, jumped overboard after breaking away from security (pictured). Footage shows three security guards on the Carnival Valor holding the frantic woman’s arms behind her back. She was not handcuffed, despite prior claims from passengers. She was heard screaming out the name ‘Alicia’ as the guards helped her up a flight of stairs and off of the pool deck after an alleged hot tub incident. Shortly after being escorted off the deck, the 32-year-old woman allegedly broke free from the guards and jumped off the tenth floor of the ship and into the ocean.

Her leap was not shown in the video, but passengers told Fox 8 that she hit the side of the boat before hitting the water face first. Shocked passengers are seen rushing to the edge of ship as crew tossed life preservers and flares to mark her position in the water. The passengers claim the woman disappeared soon after. A passenger claimed they saw ‘blood and jerking motions’ after she went overboard. 

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