A man who fell off the Carnival ship got in trouble for vaping

The passenger, who was miraculously rescued in the Gulf of Mexico 15 hours after falling off a Carnival cruise ship, was in trouble for vaping – and was likely drunk when he fell overboard.

The 28-year-old man, who has not been identified, was in the Carnival Valor’s bar with his sister at 11 p.m. Wednesday when he took a bathroom break and never returned, the cruise line said.

She didn’t report him missing until Thursday noon, prompting the ship to Cozumel, Mexico, to trace its path toward New Orleans and the US Coast Guard to begin a search.

Someone on a cargo ship alerted authorities after spotting the man being pulled from the ocean about 20 miles south of Louisiana’s Southwest Pass with signs of hypothermia, shock and dehydration in dramatic video.

He told his rescuers he wasn’t sure how he fell overboard.

Fellow passengers Whitney Gaines told the Daily Mail she overheard the man’s family talking about him over breakfast the morning after he disappeared.

They talked about how “he kept getting in trouble for vaping in undesignated smoking areas because there’s only one area where you can really smoke,” Gaines told the outlet.

“I think they were kind of alluding to the fact that he was going out to go somewhere,” she said, adding that his family believed he was drunk before he disappeared.

Gaines also told the Daily Mail that the man’s sister said she went to a bar with him.

“She said, ‘He was with me and then he wasn’t,'” the passenger recounted overhearing the woman say.

Gaines said one of the ship’s pools had been drained, but no formal missing person announcement had been made, CNN reported.

Her husband, Mike Anderson, said he saw crew members searching for a passenger and eventually heard announcements of a missing person.

“[I] noted that security began searching the boat with a photo of the missing [passenger] on their phones,” he told CNN.

Pulsating video captured the man, who was rescued from New Orleans by a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter.

“We are extremely grateful that this case ended in a positive outcome,” said Lt. Seth Gross, a search and rescue mission coordinator, in a statement to KPLC.

“It took the entire team effort of Coast Guard Sentinels, responders and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing person and bring him to safety,” he said.

“Without the alerted crew aboard the motor vessel Crinis, this case could have had a much more difficult ending,” Gross added, referring to the bulk carrier passing by.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Carnival said, “We greatly appreciate the efforts of everyone, particularly the US Coast Guard and the sailor who spotted the guest in the water.”

The Carnival Valor was also involved in another instance where a passenger fell overboard in the Gulf of Mexico.

In February, dramatic video captured a woman being held on the ship just before she reportedly jumped overboard from her balcony with her husband during a five-day cruise to Mexico.

The 32-year-old woman was heard shouting the name “Alicia” as she was led away.

With postal wires