The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a woman who went missing in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said on Thursday.
The Coast Guard said it received a call Wednesday afternoon that a 32-year-old woman had fallen overboard from the cruise ship Carnival Valor about 150 miles from Southwest Pass, Louisiana, per the Associated Press. The ship was en route to its home port in New Orleans.
A spokesperson for the Carnival Cruise Line told HuffPost the woman is thought to have jumped from her balcony.
“Carnival Valor is supporting the search for a guest who reportedly jumped overboard from her balcony on Wednesday afternoon while the ship was at sea,” the spokesperson said. “The ship’s command immediately began search and rescue procedures, returned to the area near where the incident occurred and notified the U.S. Coast Guard. Carnival’s CARE team is providing support to the guest’s husband, who was traveling with her.”
Passengers told the New Orleans news station WVUE that the woman had caused a disturbance on the 10th floor deck of the ship, prompting security officials to handcuff her.
Cell phone footage of the incident obtained by WVUE show security guards holding a woman’s arms behind her back before taking her away. The video then presumably cuts to moments after she went overboard, and passengers are shown looking out toward the sea.
Carnival said the claims about the woman being handcuffed were “unsubstantiated and untrue.”
Coast Guard officials told the AP on Thursday that an airplane is conducting search patterns off the coast.