By Georgina Brennan

MEXICAN authorities are resuming the search this week for Dublin teenager Lyndsey O’Brien, who went missing from her cruise ship last week.

The 15-year-old cruise passenger of the cruise ship Costa Magica, was reported missing early last Thursday morning in waters off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

O’Brien, who was traveling with her parents and four siblings, was aboard the luxury cruise liner which left Fort Lauderdale New Year’s Day on a week-long Western Caribbean itinerary. The ship returned to Florida on Monday without the teenager.

Her family, assisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Embassy in Mexico are to fly home this week while the search continues.

The ship, owned by Italy’s top cruise company, the Costa Cruise line, was about 80 miles from Cozumel having already made a stop in the Bahamas when Lyndsey’s 11-year-old sister Imelda alerted their parents Paul and Sandra that Lynsey had gone overboard. Her oldest sister Kelly and brother Dean, then alerted the ship’s crew that Lynsey had fallen overboard.

For nine hours the ship circled the area in the hope of finding the young girl, Lynn Torrent, president of Italian based Costa Cruise Lines told the Irish Voice. The Mexican coastguard boats and helicopters were also dispatched for the search, but they did not find her.

“The family was just devastated. We are trying to help in this difficult situation,” Torrent said. “We have a full investigation going on,” she added.

Outside the O’Brien home in the Dublin suburb of Terenure, locals held a vigil for the missing teen. School children from the O’Brien girl’s school Loreto Beaufort attended a church service for Lyndsey before classes resumed at the high school following the Christmas break.

Principal at Loreto Liz Cogan where all three sisters attend classes said everyone was feeling the O’Brien’s pain. “She was a popular, great youngster, a very vibrant girl. We all know her family very well. It’s a very difficult time for all of us,” she told the Irish Voice.

Lyndsey’s disappearance is not being investigated by the FBI because she was not an American citizen but it is the latest case in a series of cruise ship incidents that prompted a congressional hearing into cruise ship safety last month.