Family’s Caribbean nightmare
The Mexican coastguard is expected to wind down the search over the weekend for Dublin schoolgirl Lynsey O’Brien, 15, who was seen falling over a railing from the upper deck of the Costa Magica in the early hours of Thursday morning
It is understood that her 11-year-old sister, Imelda was with the transition year student at the time of her disappearance.
She notified her parents, Paul and Sandra O’Brien, and they immediately alerted the ship’s crew. An emergency operation was swiftly put into operation as an alarm was raised with the Mexican coastguard.
Lynsey, from Fortfield Road, Terenure, was on a dream holiday with her family to celebrate the end of the Christmas holidays, before returning to school next week.
She had flown with her parents, two sisters and brother last weekend to Florida, before leaving for a seven-day cruise around the Caribbean on Monday from the ship’s embarkation point at Fort Lauderdale.
The incident happened on the fourth day of the cruise as the ship was in international waters around 20 miles off the Mexican coast. It was heading to berth at the island port of Cozumel near the popular tourist resort of Cancun in the Gulf of Mexico.
A helicopter and patrol boats from the Mexican coastguard rushed to the scene. However, a major search of the area with the use of torchlight discovered no trace of the missing student.
The Mexican authorities gave the Costa Magica permission to continue its voyage after it had spent six hours at the scene of the search.
It is believed that Lynsey fell from an upper deck of the liner at around 2am local time (8am Irish time) on Thursday morning as she was returning to her cabin.
Darkness and the delay required to turn the large vessel around also hindered the rescue attempt.
Although the Costa Magica broadcasts a live webcam from two points on the vessel, it is not believed that they will provide any clues as to how Lynsey fell overboard.
The search continued yesterday in an area off Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula although it is believed that Lynsey’s family continued with the ship to Cozumel.
A spokesperson for the Italian cruise liner company that operates the vessel, Costa, said it would carry out its own investigation into how the accident occurred.
In Dublin, friends of the missing schoolgirl gathered at Loreto High School in Beaufort, Rathfarnham, to discuss news of her disappearance.
A special service was held to pray for her safe return, while school principal Liz Cogan also arranged for a counsellor for Lynsey’s distraught classmates.
“It is a difficult time for all of us,” said Ms Cogan. “She was a popular, great youngster, who loved dancing and drama and sports such as basketball.”
One of Lynsey’s friends revealed that the transition year student had hopes of going on to become a professional beautician.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that they were providing consular assistance to the family of the missing girl.
Lynsey’s accident is the latest chapter in a controversy surrounding the growing number of people who have mysteriously vanished off cruise ships in recent years.
A US congressional hearing was staged last month to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of more than a dozen people on cruise holidays since 2003.
However, a spokesperson for Costa said Lynsey’s case was “completely different”.
“It was an accident,” he stressed.
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