US Coast Guard kicks off search operation for Royal Caribbean ship crew member

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.