Search for Irish girl missing from ship to resume

A search operation was due to resume today off the coast of Mexico for an Irish teenager who is believed to have fallen overboard from a cruise ship on Thursday morning.

Lynsey O'Brien (15), from Fortfield Road, Terenure, Dublin, was on a family holiday on the Costa Magica cruise ship off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, when she went missing.

She was a transition-year student at Loreto High School Beaufort in Rathfarnham. Pupils yesterday gathered at the school, which is still on Christmas holidays, to pray for her.

It is understood that she was reported missing from her cabin on Thursday morning and is believed to have gone overboard between 2.30am and 4am.

A full search of the ship was undertaken, but she was not found. A member of her family had accompanied her to her cabin before her disappearance.

An emergency call was put through to the Mexican navy HQ in Mexico City and the cruise liner continued circling the area in which she was believed to have disappeared until the navy arrived. The United States coastguard was also contacted.

Lynsey, who is one of a family of four, travelled to Florida with her family last week to join a Caribbean cruise on board the Costa Magica, a 270m cruiser with a passenger capacity of 2,700.

Luigi Norsa, a spokesman for Italian company Costa Crociere based in Genoa, which owns the Costa Magica, said a search started as soon as the alarm was raised.

"What we know is yesterday night . . . when the ship was around 20 miles from the Mexican coast and around 60 miles from the point of Cozumel, a member of the family of this girl informed the command of the ship that the girl fell overboard," he said.

"The ship immediately started the search and informed the Mexican coast guard and the American coast guard too, and started the search in co-ordination with the Mexican coast guard."

He said that the company did not have an exact idea as to what had happened and investigations were under way.

The ship was on the fifth day of its cruise from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Cozumel in Mexico when the incident happened.

Lynsey's family is reported to be in Cozumel awaiting news of the search.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said the Irish Embassy in Mexico was providing consular assistance to the family following the incident.