Why do people still fall off cruise ships?

Table Of Content

• Let the news come to you
• ( comments
• Warwick Tollemache fell off a Royal Caribbean ship and wasn't found during a search
• Couple recalls terrifying moment lightning struck Carnival cruise ship before it caught on fire
• More from CBS News
• Carnival Freedom cruise ship catches fire for second time in less than 2 years
• Make a signal however you can — including with trash

Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information. If there are floating things around you, such as garbage, collect what you can to make yourself easier to spot. The Coast Guard has an increasing radius to search depending on where they think you are, and anything at all you can to do increase your chances can help. Standing on deck chairs, climbing on the railing and other unsafe practices can lead to tragedy.

Let the news come to you

Coast Guard called off a search after a 30-year-old man was reported missing on Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Elation cruise ship and cruise officials said surveillance video showed him jumping off. Three weeks previous, a 42-year-old woman fell off the 10th deck of the Royal Caribbean International but was rescued by the ship's crew. In May a 35-year-old Carnival Magic passenger went overboard east of Jacksonville and was never found.

How Do You Fall Off a Cruise Ship? Experts, Data Say It's Not Easy. - Business Insider

How Do You Fall Off a Cruise Ship? Experts, Data Say It's Not Easy..

Posted: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

( comments

According to a report from the Cruise Lines International Association, there were 212 overboard incidents from 2009 to 2019, and only 48 — or 28.2% — of those who fell overboard were successfully rescued. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended a 31-hour search for a passenger who fell off a cruise ship near Mexico, the authorities said on Sunday. In terms of falling overboard, river cruises are safer than their open water counterparts. River ships are smaller than traditional ocean liners, so the chances of a deadly fall are slimmer. (Smaller cruises also make it less likely to contract viruses.) River cruises also go on much tamer waters, and they sail closer to the shore. On a cruise ship, one of the biggest risks isn’t falling off—it’s the spread of diseases.

Warwick Tollemache fell off a Royal Caribbean ship and wasn't found during a search

However, Royal Caribbean told Quartz that it does not agree with the claim that there is a lack of mental health support for crew, leading to suicides. “Mental health issues are difficult anywhere in society and we see no evidence that these tragedies are more prevalent than they are in the general population.” It added that medical care for crew includes referrals to specialists where required. In their suit, the Skokan family argues that Royal Caribbean prematurely and inaccurately called their son’s MOB in December 2016 an intentional act, adding to their trauma and anguish. Paul Hoffman, the Skokan family’s lawyer, reached by Quartz, declined to comment on behalf of his clients due to the ongoing trial. Royal Caribbean also declined to comment on a case still before the court.

When a man-overboard situation arises, cruise lines employ an established emergency protocol (following recommendations from the International Maritime Association), though precise procedures depend on whether the fall was witnessed or discovered after the fact. If it’s the former, the bridge will be notified, the emergency crew mustered, and life preservers thrown out to mark the spot where the person went down. The ship is then repositioned to return to the point of the incident, while a lifeboat is readied. Challenging search-and-rescue operations ensue, which may include the aid of other area ships, while the U.S. Coast Guard or other local authorities may send in planes or helicopters to help scan the waters.

That a cruise passenger’s statistical likelihood of dying as a result of an MOB is very low cannot be denied. But Michael Lloyd—a former sea captain with 50 years at sea, and now a marine-safety consultant, victims’ advocate, and cruise industry critic—posited a useful thought experiment. He asked me, as a journalist covering the travel industry, to imagine what would happen if, every month, one to two people died on an airplane for a predictable operational reason, such as sustaining a traumatic head injury during turbulence due to failure to wear a seatbelt. It’s a scenario I find impossible to imagine, after years of flight-safety demonstrations, seatbelt checks, and back-of-the-seat cards.

More from CBS News

Between 2009 and 2019, there have been 212 man overboard incidents on cruise ships, according to a Report on Operational Incidents issued by the Cruise Lines International Association. For example, in 2017 a 24-year-old crew member from Mauritius who worked as a pool cleaner allegedly jumped off Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. Though the CCTV did not capture the moment he fell, the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA)—who, as the flag state’s naval authority, conducted the investigation (pdf)—alleges he jumped from a blind spot on deck four. The BMA also revealed that roughly seven hours passed from the time he jumped to the time he was reported missing by his supervisor. Another three hours elapsed before a search of the ship was conducted and the US Coast Guard notified. One longtime cruise ship worker from the Philippines, who spoke to Quartz on the condition of anonymity, helps moderate a private Facebook group for Filipinos working or looking for work in the industry, with more than 110,000 members.

Carnival Freedom cruise ship catches fire for second time in less than 2 years

Passenger killed after falling off Royal Caribbean cruise ship - Business Insider

Passenger killed after falling off Royal Caribbean cruise ship.

Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

A 35-year-old Australian man who fell overboard on his way back to Brisbane. A 7-year-old boy who died after falling into the ocean, followed by his mother, who tried to save him. Incidents of foul play and the possibility of a purposeful push can contribute to overboard incidents, as well. They are also often, tragically, the result of suicides in which people purposefully jump, experts have said. Calories are needed to regulate core body temperatures, but she said most bodies would be able to do that for a couple of days with reserves, including from fat and the liver. Grimes described the next 20 hours as a fight for his life spent treading water while fending off jellyfish and at least one unidentified finned creature.

But cruise lines are not required to report crime and incident data for all passengers, crew, and across all lines, jurisdictions, and territories to any one authority or body. Instead, incidents are reported piecemeal to individual flag states and port states where required. The same is true of the maritime shipping industry at large, which is why it’s hard to find reliable accounting of MOBs in other shipping sectors. CLIA, when asked if it would support a centralized reporting system, did not respond.

Since 2000, reports say roughly 300 people on cruise ships have fallen overboard. The organization recorded a total of 212 overboard incidents on cruise ships from 2009 to 2019. But of those hundreds who went into the water, only 48 were successfully rescued. In many cases, stories of passengers "falling off" of cruise ships make it seem like it's a regular occurrence or that there's a grave risk you could be swept over the side while going about your daily vacation activities. In reality, one or two people go overboard each month out of roughly 2.5 million who cruise during the same time frame.

Levion Parker plays in a North Port Huskies game at Butler Field in this 2019 file photo. Parker jumped or fell from a cruise ship earlier this month, according to authorities. And of course, those steps would require cruise lines to actively remind passengers that amid all that fun and freedom, there’s also risk—to acquaint them with the terrifying truth that every so often, a carefree cruise vacation turns into an unimaginable maritime tragedy. Cruisers, for their part, are also starting to demand change; some cruise enthusiasts are beginning to encourage cruisers to ask cruise lines why, if this tech is available and MOBs continue to happen, it’s not being installed, especially on newer ships. US congresswoman Doris Matsui from California was an original co-sponsor of the CVSSA, and in 2017 proposed bipartisan legislation to further strengthen that bill, known as the Cruise Passenger Protection Act. Among other measures, the act would amend the clause pertaining to man-overboard technology to say that cruise lines must implement complete MOB-detection tech, not just image-capture.

The cruise industry often claims that cruising at sea is safer than vacationing on land. “Last year, almost 27 (26.7) million people took a cruise holiday, and there were nine overboard incidents involving passengers. This equates to about one incident per seven million passengers,” the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s trade organization and lobbying arm, told Quartz in an emailed statement.

The Alabama man who fell off a Carnival cruise ship and miraculously survived nearly 20 hours treading water says he fought off what he feared was a shark and was forced to eat floating bamboo as he desperately clung to hope he would be rescued. Daniel Miranda, another passenger, told the station that cruise officials said that they had “verified through the cameras” that a woman had fallen into the water. A photo he took, broadcast by the station, also showed that the area of the ship where the woman fell had been cordoned off with blue tape. One passenger told a California news station, KABC-TV, that he heard someone say, “Man overboard, man overboard port side” on the ship’s speakers.

But Grimes, who said he came to in the water after losing consciousness, never once thought about giving up during the countless hours he spent treading water. The statistical chances of going into the water are slim — and are even slimmer when passengers keep their wits about them, experts have said. For Grimes, the system returned over 7,000 square nautical miles of ocean where he could be, which is about the size of Massachusetts — so anything you can do to increase the chances of being spotted can help. Keeping your cool in life-or-death situations is key, as panicking is "the biggest thing that will kill you in a survival situation," according to Bigney. "When people enter into a body of water they usually damage their lungs right away, because they gasp," Bigney explained.

It's much more dangerous to drive in a car, where the odds of dying in a crash are about 1 in 645. But despite the headline-grabbing tales of murky seas and foul play, overboard incidents remain a real rarity on cruise ships, according to industry data and experts. Going overboard on a cruise ship is extremely rare, but the vast majority of those who do are never rescued. Between 2009 and 2019, there were 212 overboard incidents on cruise ships, according to data compiled by Cruise Lines International Association. Vacationers like Broberg and Skokan aren’t the only people who plunge overboard on cruise ships. According to CLIA’s operational incident report, between 2009 and 2017, there were 43 MOB crew fatalities.