Search ends for cruise ship crewman

Rescue workers suspended Wednesday their search for a cruise ship crewman who allegedly jumped Monday evening from a vessel headed for Hilo.

A Coast Guard spokesman reported that rescue workers covered nearly 5,000 square miles in the search for the 34-year-old Filipino man, who was working aboard the Grand Princess.

The ship embarked Saturday on a 15-day cruise from San Francisco to Hilo. The crewman was allegedly seen on a security video intentionally jumping from the ship on Monday night, about 1,100 miles northeast of Hilo.

When the crew member was discovered missing, the Grand Princess changed course and assisted in the search, along with a container ship and the Star Princess, another cruise ship that regularly makes port in Hilo.

A Coast Guard crew aboard an HC-130 Hercules plane out of the Barber’s Point Air Station also searched for the man.

The Grand Princess is carrying nearly 3,000 passengers and about 1,000 crew members.

In a late Thursday afternoon email, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation reported that the Grand Princess was enroute to Honolulu Harbor after the search and is scheduled to dock today. It will then make its way to Nawiliwili Harbor on Kauai on Saturday, then moor off Lahaina, Maui, before returning to San Francisco on Jan. 19.

Just two months ago, a 54-year-old woman was also reported to have jumped from the Grand Princess into the waters of the Pacific as it made its way to Hilo, about 650 miles northeast of the Big Island.

The woman, a U.S. citizen, was never found after the search for her was suspended on Nov. 15. The search had covered more than 10,000 square miles.

When the woman went overboard, the ship was three days into a 15-day roundtrip cruise from San Francisco to Hilo.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.