Coast Guard suspends search for cruise ship passenger
MIAMI -- The Coast Guard has suspended its search for a man who jumped onto a lifeboat on the side of a cruise ship before he plunged into the ocean.
Fellow passengers watched in horror Friday as the man clung to the lifeboat for more than a minute. It wasn't clear why the man jumped toward the lifeboat. Officials only identified the passenger as a 35-year-old man from Brazil.
A short video clip was briefly posted to YouTube but then taken down. It shows several people apparently trying to help him.
"A lot of people were really affected by it. And I think more so once they'd seen it on the Internet," passenger Steve Sanford told CBS Miami.
"It was a big downer," said Texas resident Tom White, when asked how everyone on the ship felt upon learning the news.
In a statement Saturday, officials said an airplane and helicopter crews had searched an area covering 931 square nautical miles northeast of Mayaguana, Bahamas.
"All their search boats, all night long, were there," passenger George McNerney told CBS Miami.
"We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones and all that have been affected by this tragedy," Coast Guard Capt. Todd Coggeshall said.
Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas departed from Ft. Lauderdale last week and returned to Port Everglades on Saturday, CBS Miami reports.
GRAPHIC VIDEO: Edited video shot by a passenger shows the man clinging to a lifeboat before falling from the cruise ship.