Carnival Cruise Line said Tuesday that “all indications” are a passenger died of a medical condition and that it continues to cooperate with authorities.
The FBI said in a statement Sunday that the passenger died on February 27 while traveling on the Carnival Sunshine to Nassau, Bahamas.
It said it was investigating the suspicious death of a female passenger who was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead on board.
FBI spokesman Kevin Wheeler said Tuesday that the agency’s initial statement was pending and it had no further comment.
Carnival said in a statement on Tuesday: “While we continue to cooperate with authorities, all indications concerning the death of a guest on board Carnival Sunshine suggest that it was a natural death due to a medical condition.
“We will defer to the FBI on any specific details that may possibly be released at a later date as we fully respect the investigative process, but our initial emergency medical response was appropriate and it appears that this is indeed had a medical condition that tragically resulted in the guest’s death.”
The cruise line said the Sunshine, which carries 3,002 passengers and 1,040 crew members, returned to Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday.
The FBI said Sunday that investigators examined the woman’s room.
Carnival has said Bahamian officials will conduct an autopsy. The woman’s body was taken off the ship in Nassau and her husband disembarked.
