An American cruise ship passenger is feared dead after falling overboard.
The man, 72, had been on a five-day journey to Mexico on the Ruby Princess cruise ship which began on November 27.
But when the ship arrived in San Francisco on Monday morning, he was nowhere to be seen.
Princess Cruises have now announced that they are treating the man’s disappearance as a man overboard incident after reviewing CCTV footage.
A spokesperson for the company told the New York Post: ‘Princess worked throughout the day with local authorities.
‘CCTV footage has also been extensively reviewed and the ship was searched thoroughly several times without success.
‘Having ruled out other possibilities, this is being treated as a man overboard incident.’
US Customs and Border Protection have taken over the investigation, with the United States Coast Guard sending a plane to search for the missing person off the coast of Monterey, California.
Hunter Schnabel of toe Coast Guard said: ‘What information we have to go off kind of does make it a little more difficult.
‘To search a wide area of the ocean does take a lot of time and there is a lot that goes into that.”
The man, who is now feared dead, is believed to have been travelling alone.
Princess Cruises said: ‘We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the guest who was travelling alone.’
The Ruby Princess website refers to the ship as ‘a luminous jewel on the seas and a romantic destination in itself.’
The cruise liner offers more than 900 balconies and is 195ft high.
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