Search for man who fell off Carnival cruise ship near Florida is suspended

Table Of Content

• People fall off cruise ships with alarming regularity. Can anything be done to stop it?
• What happens when someone falls off a cruise ship?
• Holland America crewmember missing after going overboard before vessel docks at Port Everglades
• A Carnival cruise passenger was seen on surveillance footage jumping off the ship
• Search for man who fell off Carnival cruise ship near Florida is suspended
• Michael Douglas, 79, says his kids’ college thought he was a grandfather on Parents’ Day: ‘That was a rough one’

CLIA, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival did not respond when asked how often cruise vessels divert their itineraries to accommodate flag or port state investigations. Even though Broberg’s fall was captured on thermal camera, that camera footage was only viewed hours later, after her friends figured out she was missing. The system that captured her backwards topple did not alert the ship’s crew, or stop the ship to attempt to rescue her from the water. Incidents of foul play and the possibility of a purposeful push can contribute to overboard incidents, as well.

People fall off cruise ships with alarming regularity. Can anything be done to stop it?

The thrilling rescue of a 42-year-old woman who spent nearly an hour in the water after going overboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship last week was the rare maritime recovery to have a happy ending. If the fall or jump is not observed and immediately reported (which is most frequently the case), there is considerably less chance of the rescue being successful, leaving cruise lines dependent on reviewing closed-circuit camera footage. There is no pre-set limit to how long the search will last, however; in general, as long as there is hope, the search will continue. Still, CruiseJunkie.com founder and Memorial University of Newfoundland professor Ross Klein cautions that the numbers shouldn't be dismissed, and may actually be higher since they aren't always reported by the cruise companies or media. He explains, "I suspect most passenger disappearances on ships frequenting U.S. ports are reported, but I don’t have the same confidence around disappearances in other parts of the world, and especially not with regard to the disappearance of crew members." A person who said they were aboard the vessel at the time posted on social media that they could see spotlights and rescue boats from their balcony during the nighttime search.

What happens when someone falls off a cruise ship?

Another three hours elapsed before a search of the ship was conducted and the US Coast Guard notified. CLIA, Norwegian, and Carnival did not respond to questions about flag of convenience registries. “The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and began searching for the guest. Our Care team is now offering assistance and support to them and their traveling party. Out of privacy for the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share,” the statement said. Miami-based maritime attorney and industry watchdog Jim Walker laments that apart from Disney Cruise Line, major cruise companies have avoided integrating the state-of-the-art "man-overboard detection systems" that are out on the market today.

Holland America crewmember missing after going overboard before vessel docks at Port Everglades

The woman, identified only as Fan, fell overboard after peering over the edge to look at the water. The fisherman who found her said she was in stable condition and had only minor injuries to her arms from jellyfish stings. 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. He says while provisions like the ILO’s Maritime Labor Convention, which went into effect in 2013, have helped improve life onboard, there are still plenty of realities that crew often need help adjusting to when they sign up for a job on a ship.

The ship will stop and the crew will try to pinpoint where and when it happened so they can start a thorough search in that area. From 2009 to 2019, the number of "operational incidents" declined by 41% and the rate of "man overboard incidents" declined by nearly 35%, while the industry's total capacity grew by 68%, CLIA said. The overboard woman was found to be in "good health" after the fall, the Coast Guard said. A rescue expert told Business Insider her survival was "nothing short of miraculous." Accidental overboards can happen when cruisers have had too much to drink and climb on top of railings, enter restricted areas or attempt dangerous — and potentially fatal — stunts like climbing from balcony to balcony.

Cruise lines have regulations in place to prevent passengers from falling overboard. Ultimately, if you fall from a cruise ship many miles from shore, it's a waiting game to be rescued, and making a signal is one way to improve your chances of being found. 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. A Carnival cruiser who fell off a ship over Thanksgiving 2022 made headlines when he was rescued after spending close to 20 hours in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2023, at least 10 people fell off a major cruise line ship, turning dream vacations into disaster situations — and only two survived the fall into the ocean.

Watch: The rise and fall of the cruise industry

Advancements in sophisticated safety designs mean overboard incidents are generally on the decline, CLIA data shows. "It's becoming much more uncommon than it was 20 years ago," Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer at Cruise Media, told The Times in 2021. The woman was the eighth person suspected of going overboard a passenger vessel this year, according to data compiled by Ross Klein, a social work professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, who runs a cruise safety website.

Search for man who fell off Carnival cruise ship near Florida is suspended

The US Coast Guard told Quartz that “once the final ISO standard is promulgated, the Coast Guard will use that standard as the basis to draft enforceable regulations” in the US. Meanwhile, MARSS says its system is already compliant with a draft version of the standard—and falls well under the ISO’s maximum false positive rate of one per day on average—based on independent testing done by its clients. On Saturday, the Coast Guard said that it had deployed a cutter called the Forrest Rednour as well as a helicopter, and that it was working with Mexico’s Navy to find the woman. 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. Other types of reckless behavior — like climbing on or over the railings; attempting to recreate a certain famous movie scene; or striving to get the perfect selfie — can also quickly turn deadly on a cruise.

Lifeboats from the Britanis and a nearby Norwegian ship eventually found the missing man thanks to a calm sea, clear skies, a full moon, and some skillful searching. It turns out the man had consumed both drugs and alcohol and wrongfully believed the ship was in the midst of a mutiny. Just three hours after the Norwegian Spirit set sail from New Orleans on June 12, 2011, a man went overboard into the waters of the mighty Mississippi River. Luckily for him, 16-year-old Alex Giffel saw the whole thing, threw a life ring, and instructed his 21-year-old cousin to alert the crew.

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]

"She said there had been an accident and Liam 'wasn't coming back.' She then said she had seen CCTV and he'd gone overboard." Liam Jones disappeared during a seven-day Northern Europe tour cruise from Southampton to Amsterdam with his family to celebrate his mother's birthday. "We are beyond grateful that this case ended with a positive outcome," said Lt. Seth Gross, a Coast Guard Sector New Orleans search-and-rescue mission coordinator. "The Jayhawk aircrew hoisted the man onto the helicopter and transferred him to awaiting emergency medical services at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport," a statement from the Coast Guard read. The 28-year-old man said he was determined to make it out of the Gulf of Mexico alive, calling it the experience of a lifetime. Click here to read about what actually happens to your body when you black out from drinking too much alcohol.

Describe the person as best you can, including how fit they appeared, what they were wearing and if they were holding anything that might float, as all those factors will affect likely survival times. The captain also will notify other ships in the area who are then obligated to help search. "Even one incident is one too many," CLIA told Business Insider, explaining, "The vast majority of cases are either reckless behavior or some form of intentional act. People don't just inadvertently fall over the side of a ship."

In December 2009, while Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas was making the short journey from Miami to Key West, crew member Robert Mado plunged overboard. The ship's captain immediately sent out a distress call to the Coast Guard, who found and rescued Mado in the Biscayne Bay waters about two hours later. He was about five miles off the coast of Cutler Bay and was in good condition, Petty Officer Barry Bena said. Witnesses said the 31-year-old purposely jumped from the ship, but these claims were not confirmed.

“So I started eating on it and it actually, I won’t say it tasted good, but it gave some type of flavor in my mouth other than salt water,” he 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. "There's a lot of trash in our great oceans, unfortunately," Bigney said, adding that collecting any floating garbage into a large pile could potentially form a signal that could be spotted by rescuers. "You don't want to drink any salt water," she said, adding that you'd want to try to conserve whatever water you already had. One way to do that would be to try and use your clothing to create shelter from the sun, such as by wrapping it over your head. "Our bodies are perfectly, evolutionarily adapted to have this ability to fast for a long period of time, so he should have been fine as far as food," Bigney said, adding that "psychologically" it may have helped him, but "physiologically" his body was probably okay without eating.

In a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean, in which a jury trial began on Dec. 10, Skokan’s parents alleged that in his last 12 hours onboard the ship (pdf), he was served six martinis, at least seven vodkas, two vodkas mixed with Red Bull, and one cognac. They also allege that Royal Caribbean had already been told by eyewitnesses that the fall was not intentional when it made the announcement, and that a crew member had seen Skokan extremely intoxicated just 20 minutes before his death. US maritime laws and vessel requirements are much more stringent than those of, say, Bermuda or Panama—it’s no coincidence that only one large passenger cruise ship, Norwegian’s Pride of America, is currently registered in the US. This is despite the fact that Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Carnival all have their corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida, giving the impression that they are tried-and-true American brands. Presumably for tax purposes, these lines are incorporated in Liberia, Bermuda, and Panama respectively.

Compared to other passengers' tales, the 90 minutes she spent in the water was actually relatively short. Cruise Critic staff writer Joyce Gleeson-Adamidis has been on a countless number of cruises — both as a ship staff member and the wife of a Celebrity Cruise captain — and has seen it all. In one of her articles, she described the tale of a man overboard situation that didn't make the major media. In 1992, aboard the legendary Britanis, the captain noticed an 18-year-old passenger acting strangely and began talking to him. When it was clear the young man wasn't thinking straight, the captain grabbed him, but the passenger pulled away, ran out the door, and left over the railing.