Carnival pulls out of Europe; search halted for couple that fell overboard

As darkness fell in Australia on Friday, officials called off the search for a young couple who fell into the Pacific off a Carnival cruise ship.

While not mentioning this latest in a string of bad news, Carnival today also announced that it is pulling out of the European market, and will not set sail from the Continent in 2014.

The couple in the latest Carnival catastrophe, Paul Rossington, 30, and Kristen Schroder, 27, were caught on the ship’s surveillance cameras falling from the Carnival Spirit on Wednesday night.

They were not reported missing until Thursday morning, when the ship docked in Sydney and seven family members and friends in their party prepared to depart.

Stephen Leahy, head of Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopters, told ABC News that if the couple fell accidentally, they could have survived until today, as the ocean was calm and fairly warm, and Rossington, a paramedic for the state ambulance service, was very fit. But no life preservers were missing from the ship.

Police are now trying to piece together how exactly they came to fall. The video shhows them going over a railing that is five inches higher than regulations require, Carnival said, and specifically designed to prevent accidents like this one.

Four crew members were monitoring 600 surveillance cameras at the time, but their attention was focused on the public areas of the ship, and no one saw the two as they tumbled more than 65 feet.

Head of the Marine Area Command, Detective Superintendent Mark Hutchings, said the video will have to be enhanced to determine exactly what occurred.

"What it did was tell us two people went into the water and that’s about as far as we can take it," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It was at night time, and whilst you can’t really tell if it was a male or a female who went over first, they went over around the same time but without further investigating it’s a bit hard to speculate about what occurred just from that."

Forensic investigation of the couple’s cabin and the accident site, and interviews with family and other passengers, also being carried out to determine what might have occurred, he said.

It is understood the Carnival Spirit left on its next 10-day Pacific voyage as scheduled yesterday.

"There is no evidence of foul play. However, out of respect for the families, we are not going to publicly disclose the details of what occurred," a Carnival spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Carnival told agents in a letter today that it has decided to pull out of Europe in 2014, blaming rising air fares and market conditions.

The cruise giant said it will base Carnival Legend in Australia next year and keep the rest of the fleet in US ports.

The UK trade sales term, commercial terms, and marketing funding will remain in place during 2014, but no ships will sail from there.

Adolfo Perez, managing director, UK & Ireland said in a letter: "This was a difficult decision for us, as we realise our guests truly love sailing with Carnival in Europe, largely because we provide great holidays at great value for money.  We are hopeful we will return in the future.

"Carnival continues to be committed to the UK and Irish markets. Whilst we have relied on you all for our European deployment in 2013, you continue to bring guests to Carnival in the Caribbean…and they love it. 

"In fact, the majority of our UK customers choose a cruising holiday that departs from North America."

by Cheryl Rosen, Bev Fearis, and Diane Evans