Police ID officer as man hurt in 16-foot fall on cruise ship

VENICE, La. – A man injured in a fall on a Carnival cruise ship has been identified as an Alabama police officer.

News outlets report Huntsville, Alabama, police say officer John Thomas Holliday was hurt Tuesday when he fell nearly 16-feet (5-meters) to the ship’s deck off the Louisiana coast. It described his injuries as not life threatening. The U.S. Coast Guard had initially reported the 23-year-old man was critically injured and airlifted to a New Orleans hospital.

Holliday crashed into the Carnival Valor’s deck at about 1 a.m. Tuesday while the ship was dozens of miles off the coast of Venice, Louisiana. Authorities arrived at the scene several hours later. It’s unclear what caused Holliday to fall.