Family says son's fall from cruise ship wasn't suicide News

Table Of Content

• Ronnie Lee Peale Jr. was in his 'happy place' before he fell off a Carnival ship and was never seen again
• News
• Passenger Who Fell Off Cruise Ship Was 'Dead Set' on Surviving 20-Hour Ordeal: 'My Worst Fear Is Drowning'
• How to survive if you fall off a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, according to a survival expert
• In search of wildlife on a one-day cruise off the coast of Cornwall, UK

A rescue expert told Business Insider her survival was "nothing short of miraculous." The Coast Guard searched over 5,171 square miles and more than 60 hours, but crews could not find Peale Jr. In one of the videos, a small boat can be seen in the distance and people aboard the cruise ship are heard clapping, whistling and cheering. The Carnival Magic is around 1,000 feet long and has a capacity of almost 3,700 passengers, in addition to around 1,300 crew members, according to the cruise company. A spokesperson for Carnival told Insider at the time that the "only way" to go overboard is to "purposefully climb up and over the safety barriers."

Ronnie Lee Peale Jr. was in his 'happy place' before he fell off a Carnival ship and was never seen again

In a 2020 study, a professor examined more than 620 cruise deaths from 2000 through the end of 2019. He found that overboard incidents — falling, jumping or being thrown — were the leading cause of death among passengers and crew members, accounting for 23 percent of all deaths. While it’s true that tens of millions of people vacation on cruise ships every year without incident, experts say a combination of mitigatable risks and loose safety regulations are contributing to deaths. A person can also become unconscious from hypothermia in as little as 15 minutes, depending on sea temperatures. "The best thing you can do in the first few minutes of immersion is try to rest, relax, float," he says, suggesting that restricting movement and conserving energy is the best strategy to increase your survival odds. It's impossible to discuss cruise-ship man-overboard incidents without mentioning that some of them are, in fact, intentional.

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"We have such a panic instinct to get air, and when people do that they bring water into their lungs." The only way you risk a fall is if you're standing on furniture to peer over the side or climbing somewhere you're not supposed to. It's not possible for you to trip over a door frame or slip on a wet deck and fall off of a vessel.

Passenger Who Fell Off Cruise Ship Was 'Dead Set' on Surviving 20-Hour Ordeal: 'My Worst Fear Is Drowning'

Richard Hoefle, a Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician for the New Orleans division, told local news stations that Grime "had about 30 seconds to a minute left" before he would have died in the water. As nightfall came back around, Grimes said he became increasingly concerned but told himself to just keep swimming. "I have my moments where I break, but I'm keeping the faith," she told Business Insider as the search continued. California resident Kenneth Schwalbe, 59, was traveling on the Emerald Princess ship when he went overboard on August 11 about eight miles off the coast of Hilo, Hawaii. Witnesses said cruise crew members managed to find her and brought her safely back on board in a roughly 45-minute ordeal.

How to survive if you fall off a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, according to a survival expert

At Least 9 People Went Overboard Off Cruise Ships in 2023 - Business Insider

At Least 9 People Went Overboard Off Cruise Ships in 2023.

Posted: Wed, 15 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

“Cruise ships have safety barriers in all public areas that are regulated by US Coast Guard standards that prevent a guest from falling off,” the agency said in a statement. Grimes, who was on the five-day Thanksgiving cruise with 18 family members, was reported missing by his sister about 12 hours after he left the ship’s bar to use the bathroom and failed to return. The U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday that it halted its search for a woman who went overboard from a Carnival cruise ship near Ensenada, Mexico.

All ships have "safety barriers that are regulated by U.S. Coast Guard standards and prevent a guest from falling off," according to Carnival spokesperson Matt Lupoli. Every open deck and balcony is required to have railings "not less than 42 inches from above the cabin deck," according to the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 (CVSSA), with thick metal or Plexiglas panels underneath to prevent anyone from slipping through. Despite the mystery and morbid intrigue, CLIA often points to a 2017 analysis (pdf) carried out for the industry group, which found that reports of three crime categories—homicide, sexual assault/forcible rape, and aggravated assault—are much lower on cruise ships than on land. From a business perspective, there’s also little incentive for the cruising companies to curb alcoholic indulgence. Each of the big three lines—Carnival Corporation & plc, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd, and Norwegian Cruise Lines—made between 26% and 30% of its 2017 revenue on drinks and extras sold onboard, according to their annual reports.

However, that still requires the crime be reported in a timely manner and that an initial investigation be carried out by cruise-line employees in a way that preserves any evidence for independent officials. It also requires that concurrent jurisdiction be negotiated by the victim’s home country with the flag state, as well as the port state where the ship next docked. Indeed, man-overboard incidents don’t happen often enough to deter many passengers from taking a cruise vacation. "The passenger was recovered alive and reported to be in good health, after reportedly falling into the water from 10th deck of the ship," Ricardo Castrodad, a spokesman for the US Coast Guard, told Insider in a statement on Wednesday.

It then sends an automated alert to crew, who can immediately view roughly 10 seconds of footage from the triggered location on the ship to see if a search-and-rescue mission should be launched (or if it was a false alarm triggered by a seagull or wave). It bears repeating that not many people each year fall overboard on cruise ships. There was another incident just last week in which a 26-year-old man went overboard in the Florida Keys, one of at least three MOBs in the last month, including a 69-year-old Dutch woman discovered missing in Martinique and a 27-year-old British crew member lost in Mexican waters.

“The decision to suspend the active search efforts pending further development is never one we take lightly. We offer our most sincere condolences to Mr. Peale’s family and friends," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Hooper said in a statement. "Cruise ships today are the safest that ever sailed, thanks to the rules, regulations, and technological innovations that govern their design," Andy Harmer, UK and Ireland director of CLIA, told The Telegraph. Always pay attention to safety messages and signage that indicates which parts of the ship are meant for crew only, and drink alcohol responsibly.

He said he used his last bit of energy to swim to the vessel, which later contacted the Coast Guard for help. The next morning, Grimes' sister reported him missing after she learned he had not returned to his cabin. He admitted to having a few drinks prior to falling off the ship, but did not recall how many. Grimes was last seen at a restaurant where he told his sister he was going to the bathroom. According to CLIA, cruise lines have maintained an exceptional safety record and cruising is one of the safest forms of travel. Tyler Barnett, a 28-year-old father of two from Houma, Louisiana was on a week-long cruise with his younger sister and their uncle when he went missing in the middle of the night.

Railings on cruise ships are legally required to be 42 inches tall, Klein told The Times. That 3.5-foot height requirement is in place to keep people safe along the promenades onboard, Salerno told the newspaper. The low survival rate among those who end up in the water is why cruise ships heavily prioritize making sure people don't fall in the first place.

Having something to hang onto increases the person's chances of staying afloat and makes them easier to spot. Alcohol can play a role in overboard incidents, said Michael Winkleman, a maritime attorney with Lipcon, Margulies & Winkleman, P.A., who has represented travelers in overboard cases. "Usually, it's just people not making smart decisions because they're dramatically overserved and they end up going over," he said. "I'll stress that people don't just fall over the side," said Brian Salerno, senior vice president of global maritime policy at Cruise Lines International Association, the industry's leading trade group. "There are railings and they're pretty high. It's almost always the result of an intentional act." Some cruise lines are adding overboard detection sensors which use thermal cameras and micro radars to detect incidents and alert crew members.

The man was a passenger on the Carnival Magic cruise ship, which was about 186 miles east of Jacksonville when he fell into the water. Matthew Kuhn, who was on the cruise ship with his family, told WOFL-TV of Orlando, Florida, that he watched rescue efforts from his balcony. Defenders of the industry often characterize cruise ships as a microcosm of a city, with the same problems that come up on land. At least 386 people were reported to have gone overboard, voluntarily or by accident, from 2000 to 2020, according to data Klein compiled. He began tracking overboard cases in 1995 using media reports, tips, information requests and other methods, later serving as an expert witness before Congress.

In the global cruise industry, one or two people are statistically likely to fall overboard from a cruise ship each month, and somewhere between 17% and 25% are rescued (according to Klein’s data and GP Wild’s, respectively). The percentage rescued might be significantly higher, advocates say, if cruise ships were to adopt a relatively new technology that would set off an immediate automated alert any time a person goes overboard. Of course, automatic MOB technology could also trigger other costs for cruise companies. It’s easy to see how automated alarms—recording real MOBs and occasional false positives—could result in significant disruption to ship itineraries and tours, and routing and port delays, as well as missed flights and other inconveniences for passengers upon their return to land. With MOBs or serious crimes, of course law enforcement authorities are supposed to be alerted.