Boating and Cruise Ship Law News
News outlets have reported that another cruise ship passenger has gone overboard during a cruise ship. This time a female passenger, age 46, reportedly went overboard from the Norwegian Cruise Line ship the Norwegian Star, last weekend. The passenger, a British woman, was found swimming in the waters approximately ten hours after falling overboard. She was taken to a hospital and treated for exhaustion, but is in stable condition.
We are pleased to report that this particular incident involving yet another passenger falling overboard from a cruise ship ended with a successful rescue of the passenger. This is not always the case. This particular passenger must’ve been a very good swimmer, and it is quite remarkable to have endured 10 hours in the water before being rescued.
Multiple Man Overboard Incidents Thus Far in 2018
According to one source, 17 people have reportedly gone overboard on cruise ships this year alone.. This continues to be a problem year after year. The problem caught the attention of Congress, who passed legislation requiring cruise ship companies to implement technology for an automatic man overboard systems designed to detect when someone goes overboard a cruise ship so that a prompt search and rescue can be initiated. The sooner a search and rescue effort is started, the more likelihood there is of saving the overboard passenger’s life. This case is yet another example that people can survive a fall from a cruise ship, and that it is possible to rescue a person who has fallen off the cruise ship if prompt detection and rescue efforts are made. Continue reading
The passenger was initially determined to be missing at approximately 3:50pm when he did not show up for a scheduled doctor’s appointment onboard the ship. Reports state that the cruise ship company reported the passenger missing to the National Park Service officials at approximately 7:30pm after a ship-wide search. At that point a search effort started involving 15 people, three vessels and an airplane, but the passenger was never found.
The nature and extent of the injuries were not known at the time, other than it was reported that there was severe bruising to the facial area, and a Coast Guard officer commented that he did not believe the injuries to be more serious injuries than facial fractures, although that remains to be seen. It is also unclear why the 3-year-old fell from the balcony in her stateroom.
At this time, the reports are that the United States Coast Guard was participating in the search and rescue efforts, as it does involve a United States citizen, and the ship did depart from the United States port. The Bahamian maritime authority will also get involved since the incident did happen in Bahamian waters.
Unfortunately, we have reported about way too many instances of passengers falling overboard during a cruise vacation, specifically on a Carnival cruise ship. Just last month, a 24- year-old male fell off another Carnival ship. According to Ross Klein, almost half of the overboard incidents on cruises have actually occurred on Carnival ships.
At the end of the cruise, the husband and the two children left the vessel and were at Rome’s airport waiting for their flight home to Dublin when the arrest occurred. Authorities were suspicious because the tracking of the passengers showed that the wife had never left the cruise ship and had never been reported missing by her husband. After some questioning of the young children, as well as other reports that surfaced regarding an interaction with a gift shop employee and the couple, Belling was arrested in Rome for the suspected murder of his wife.
With the increasing number of passengers or crew members being reported going overboard from a cruise ship, even two man overboard incidents in one week, the news of such events occurring is not as shocking as it used to be, but obviously still is alarming as ever. On Ross Klein’s website 
The case received national attention, which prompted congressional hearings addressing cruise ship safety and security. The case generated so much interest and focus that it even became the subject of books and movies. His body was never found. Most experts believe he was the victim of foul play, possibly murder. However, an FBI investigation never resulted in the prosecution of anyone for any crime. The parents spent years searching for answers, and unfortunately, many questions remain today, 10 years later.
There have been incidences in the past where a passenger has reported something falling from above, believing it to have been a body falling into the water. The cruise ship company would then do an investigation on board the ship, determining that a passenger was indeed missing. However, at that point, precious time had passed before the authorities were notified and the search and rescue efforts started. This meant that usually the passenger was not found.
The timing of an implementation of a search and rescue effort is critical when a passenger has fallen overboard on a cruise ship. There is a very small window of opportunity for the person to be rescued, and that window of opportunity closes each minute that passes. Often times, a passenger is reported overboard in international waters, and at night. This makes the window of opportunity even smaller.
