{"id":474312,"date":"2026-09-24T15:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474312\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T15:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:54:11","slug":"coast-guard-suspends-search-for-california-dad-who-jumped-off-cruise-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474312\/","title":{"rendered":"Coast Guard suspends search for California dad who jumped off cruise ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Coast Guard has suspended its search for a California father of three<\/a> who went overboard<\/a> from a cruise ship during an anniversary trip \u2014 and the 56-year-old is now presumed dead.<\/p>\n

Thomas Gigler disappeared from the Carnival Panorama <\/a>Saturday as the ship sailed approximately\u00a057 miles off the coast of Mexico, according to the Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

The Redlands man had been aboard the ship with his wife, Michelle, 48, as the couple celebrated their anniversary.<\/p>\n

A man jumped overboard from the Carnival Panorama cruise ship as it sailed from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Long Beach, Saturday. The ship\u2019s crew initiated search and investigation procedures, including reviewing surveillance footage and notifying both the U.S. and Mexican coast guards. Facebook\/Michelle Gigler<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard<\/a> said it was suspending the search Wednesday pending new information after crews spent more than\u00a041 hours scouring 1,707 square miles of ocean\u00a0without finding any sign of Gigler.<\/p>\n

A Mexican Navy boat and\u00a0six good Samaritan vessels\u00a0also joined the effort to find the missing passenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur deepest condolences go out to the family and loved ones of Mr. Tom Gigler,\u201d said Capt. Jessica Davila, chief of incident management for the Coast Guard Southwest District.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisions to suspend search operations are never easy and are made with careful consideration of all available information. Our hearts are with those impacted by his loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Coast Guard motor boat is moored at a pier on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard\u2019s Rescue Coordination Center in Alameda received the initial report of a missing passenger at about\u00a01:30 p.m. Saturday, after the cruise ship reported that Gigler was last seen at approximately\u00a011:30 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

Multiple Coast Guard fixed-wing aircraft were launched to search for him, while officials coordinated with Mexico\u2019s Maritime Rescue Coordination Center and the Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue system to locate nearby ships that could assist.<\/p>\n

Thomas Gigler, left, and his wife Michelle Gigler are pictured. Facebook\/Michelle Gigler<\/p>\n

Gigler, a computer programmer who worked for Esri for 24 years, was traveling with his family on the Carnival Panorama as it made its way from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, toward Long Beach.<\/p>\n

The family lives in Redlands, about 63 miles east of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Carnival previously confirmed that a male passenger had gone overboard and said the ship\u2019s crew immediately began search and investigation procedures, including reviewing surveillance footage and notifying US and Mexican authorities.<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard\u2019s decision to suspend the search came after an extensive search of the area with no sightings of Gigler.<\/p>\n

In determining whether to continue a search, the Coast Guard considers factors including the amount of time that has passed, environmental conditions and the likelihood that a person could still survive in the water.<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard says the model provides guidance rather than an absolute prediction and is used alongside other information available to rescuers.\u00a0 Facebook\/Michelle Gigler<\/p>\n

The agency also uses its\u00a0Probability of Survival Decision Aid, or PSDA, a computer model developed by the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine to help estimate survival times for people exposed to cold-water conditions, as part of search-and-rescue planning.<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard says the model provides guidance rather than an absolute prediction and is used alongside other information available to rescuers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After more than 41 hours of searching and no sightings, Gigler remains missing and is presumed dead. His family has yet to make any public statements. <\/p>\n

It is also unclear why Gigler made the leap. <\/p>\n

The Coast Guard said the search could be revisited if new information becomes available.<\/p>\n

Cruise ship Carnival Conquest is docked at port at sunset in Willemstad, Curacao, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. The island is a popular Caribbean cruise destination. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Experts say leaping into cold ocean water immediately triggers cold shock (gasping and heart spikes), ten minutes in cause cold incapacitation (muscle paralysis), and roughly an hour leads to severe hypothermia. <\/p>\n

Survival without protective gear in water under 40\u00b0F (4\u00b0C) ranges from under 15 to 45 minutes, while warmer waters between 50\u00b0F and 60\u00b0F (10\u00b0C\u201315\u00b0C) can extend survival to 1\u20136 hours, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Coast Guard has suspended its search for a California father of three who went overboard from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,15610,100147,339,4182,3586],"class_list":["post-474312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-coast-guard","tag-cruises","tag-death","tag-metro","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}