A passenger of an Italian cruise liner has been confirmed dead after going overboard.
The Maritime Safety and Rescue Society, known locally as Salvamento Marítimo, said on Twitter that a search operation had been launched after a cruise passenger was believed to have fallen from the 8th deck of a cruise ship shortly before 10:45 p.m. last Thursday, October 10.
The passenger was sailing on a vessel operated by the Italian Costa Cruises company, known as Costa Pacifica.
According to Costa Cruises, the accident involved a 75-year-old woman. Crew members were alerted by a witness who saw the unnamed cruise passenger "voluntarily jump from the balcony of their cabin."
The body of the missing passenger was later retrieved in Gulf of Cadiz at around 9:00 a.m. on Friday, October 11, NATO Allied Maritime Command confirmed.
The Costa Pacifica crew searched for the missing person until 2:00 a.m. but the operation was called off because of a separate medical emergency.
Salvamento Marítimo announced on Twitter that a rescue tug boat called Maria Zambrano had recovered the body and taken the remains to Algeciras.
NATO revealed units sent to the area included a Spanish Search and Rescue helicopter, a French Maritime Patrol Aircraft, and the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley.
According to officials, NATO ships had been re-routed from an ongoing multi-nation exercise taking place off the coast of Spain, called Dynamic Mariner/ Flotex-19.
For other Costa Pacifica accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.