The boat was sailing near the Bahamas when, around 9:00pm, an announcement came over the ship's loudspeaker system three times: "Code Oscar portside." The announcement means there is a passenger overboard.
One passenger on the cruise, Kareen Kennedy, was finishing dinner when the announcement occurred. "My server looked out my window, and just the way he looked out ... I was about to order dessert, and I said, 'What happened?' He said, 'Someone jumped off the ship,'" Kennedy told Florida Today.
Crew members then climbed into two rescue boats and descended from the ship to search for the unidentified female passenger using bright searchlights to scour the waves in the darkness. After a short time, the search party found the passenger in the water and brought her back on board to be evaluated in the ship's medical center.
The passenger was in stable condition, and the captain diverted the ship so she could be transferred to a local hospital in Port Canaveral, Florida, for further medical attention. "They got in the water quickly," Kennedy said. "It was only an hour's delay from the time they announced it and stopped to when we started going back to Port Canaveral."
The captain then got back on the loudspeaker to update the ship's passengers. "They found the person in the water, and she was picked up and she's now in the hospital. So everything is good there," the captain said, according to Kennedy. "Just to let you know that we will soon be on our way up to Port Canaveral. We have to retrieve our tender boat that did the rescue operation, and then we will be on our way shortly."
Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement its thoughts and prayers were with the passenger and her family, and that its team is providing them assistance during the recovery process, Florida Today reports. "We are thankful that our team reacted quickly and was able to rescue the guest," the statement said.
