The Coast Guard is searching for a woman who fell overboard during a cruise to the Bahamas.
Rina Patel, 32, from Interlaken, N.Y., was wearing a white and pink dress when she fell into the sea at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday from the 11th deck of the Carnival Ecstasy. The ship was 27 miles southwest of Freeport, Grand Bahama in the Bahamas, the agency said.
"Foul play is not suspected at this time," Petty Officer Eric Woodall said from the Coast Guard station in Miami.
A Carnival Cruise Line spokeswoman said the woman was witnessed jumping from the Ecstasy.
"Man overboard procedures were initiated immediately, along with notification to the U.S. Coast Guard," Jennifer de la Cruz, Carnival's vice president of corporate communications, said in an email.
The cruise line also said its personnel assisted in the search and rescue effort. Coast Guard crews in a helicopter and airplane from the Miami base as well as a cutter from the Fort Lauderdale station were looking for the passenger.
The Ecstasy was on a five-day cruise from its home port of Charleston, S.C. Its last port of call was in Nassau on Tuesday.
The ship stayed in the area where the woman went overboard until 9 a.m. Wednesday, when the Coast Guard released it to resume its voyage to Charleston, Woodall said.
The Ecstasy was expected to arrive in Charleston Thursday morning.
The cruise line said it was assisting the missing passenger's family, who were also aboard the ship. Citing its policies and passenger privacy, the spokeswoman declined to name her.
