Boating and Cruise Ship Law NewsOn October 17, a federal judge in Miami allowed a lawsuit to move forward involving a 22-year-old cruise ship passenger that fell overboard from Independence of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, to his death. The cruise ship company, as per usual, sought to have the case dismissed arguing that the passenger intentionally jumped over the railing and it was not due to his alcohol intake. However, according to the Order denying Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, the passenger was overserved alcohol by the cruise ship company, at least 30 ounces of alcohol, and multiple eyewitnesses have confirmed that the passenger lost his balance and fell. Continue reading
Articles Posted in Cruise Ship Disappearances
Happy Ending for Cruise Ship Passenger Who Survives After Falling Overboard on NCL Ship
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
Second Passenger Reported Overboard from an Alaska-Bound Cruise Ship This Month
Yet another cruise ship passenger is reported to have fallen overboard Friday during an Alaskan cruise.This time, the passenger was onboard the MS Westerdam, a Holland America Line cruise ship. The passenger is reported to have gone overboard while the cruise ship was passing through the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
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.
3-Year-Old Airlifted After Fall from Carnival Cruise Ship Balcony
It has been reported that a 3-year-old girl on board a Carnival Cruise Line cruise ship fell from a stateroom balcony to the deck below, suffering injuries which required her to be airlifted to a hospital in Tampa, Florida. The incident took place this past Friday aboard the Carnival Breeze. The ship was on its way back to Galveston, Texas, after cruising to the Bahamas.
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.
32-Year-Old Georgia Resident Is Latest Cruise Ship Passenger to Be Reported Missing After Falling Overboard on Carnival Liberty Cruise
There is a report of yet again another passenger on a cruise ship reported to have gone overboard, and not found. The latest involves a 32-year-old male from Georgia, a passenger on the Carnival Liberty cruise ship, a Carnival Cruise Line ship, who reportedly went overboard in the early morning hours of Friday, April 7, while the vessel was in Bahamian territorial waters after having left Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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.
Another Carnival Cruise Ship Passenger Falls Overboard
MIAMI, Florida–There has been another reported incident of a passenger on a cruise ship falling overboard. This past Wednesday, a 23-year-old male passenger from Florida was reported to have fallen from the eighth deck of the Carnival Victory, a Carnival Cruise Line ship, at around 3 a.m. Since the cruise ship was close to the territorial waters of Cuba, Cuban authorities got involved in the rescue efforts, as well as the United States Coast Guard. After thoroughly searching the area for 16 hours, the Coast Guard called off the search for the missing passenger.
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.
Father of Two Arrested for Murder of Wife Who Disappeared During Their Family’s Mediterranean Cruise
MIAMI, Florida–In a very strange case, a man employed as an IT consultant, who was on a cruise with his wife and two small children, was arrested in Rome, Italy, where he is suspected of the murder of his wife during an 11-day Mediterranean cruise aboard the passenger cruise ship MSC Magnifica, operated by MSC Cruises.
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.
Overboard Princess Cruises Passenger Rescued After Almost an Hour in the Pacific Ocean
MIAMI, Florida–Another passenger has been reported to have fallen overboard from a cruise ship. Unlike the latest tragedy aboard the Carnival Elation, this story ended successfully. According to news reports, a cruise ship passenger aboard Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess fell into Pacific Ocean when the ship was between Brisbane and New Caledonia at around 4 p.m. this past Friday. The ship was on an 11-day cruise from Brisbane, Australia. Once the “man overboard” announcement was made, the ship turned around in hopes of finding the woman. Life rings and a lifeboat were deployed into the water, and about 45 minutes later, the woman was located by the lifeboat and brought back aboard the ship. There are no details as to why she fell overboard and whether the ship had a man overboard system in place. It seems like either someone spotted the woman falling overboard or the ship did have some sort of system in place because of the quick turnaround time between when the woman was reported overboard and her successful rescue.
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 Cruise Junkie, a site that keeps track of cases involving people going overboard on cruise ships, this high number of overboard passengers and crew members is illustrated. This most recent case on the Sun Princess, along with Ross Klein’s statistics, again points to the need for the cruise lines to step up to the plate and comply with the legislation requiring man overboard systems to be installed on the cruise ships. Clearly whatever system cruises currently have in place is not enough.
Search Suspended for Carnival Cruise Ship Passenger Who Fell Overboard near Bahamas
MIAMI, Florida–This past Monday, a 24-year-old male reportedly fell overboard from the 11th deck of the Carnival Elation cruise ship. The cruise ship returned to its port in Jacksonville yesterday without the missing passenger. It used to be shocking for people to hear that a passenger was reported to have fallen overboard on a cruise ship. Then came the case of George Smith, a man who went overboard during his honeymoon cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas. George Smith was a young handsome man who had just married his young beautiful wife, Jennifer Hagel, in a storybook wedding in Connecticut. They then headed off to their honeymoon on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, and George Smith never returned. During the cruise he was reported missing, and after searching for him, blood was discovered on the canopy below his balcony, where it is believed he struck after falling off his cabin’s balcony before landing in the water.
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.
Body of Missing Passenger Found in Cruise Ship Ventilation Shaft Two Months Later
MIAMI, Florida–The body of a female passenger who had gone missing from a Tirenia ferry has been located two months later in the ship’s ventilation shaft. The female passenger was aboard the MV Sharden, a ferry which can carry almost 3,000 passengers and 850 cars, back to Genoa after having vacationed in Sardinia, Italy with her husband. According to reports, the couple had been resting on sunbeds aboard the boat when his wife disappeared. The captain then ordered the ship personnel to conduct a search of the entire ship. Sadly, his wife could not be found, leading to the conclusion that she either had fallen overboard or had been the victim of a crime. However, two months later, her dead body has been found in the ship’s ventilation shaft. According to an autopsy report, she had died the night after she had disappeared
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.
