MAN OVERBOARD
With news of a man overboard yesterday, a teenager who apparently “fell off” the Carnival Fantasy in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday evening, we did some research about people going overboard and we were astonished to find that it’s not that rare an event.
In the past 8 years, there have been 114 cases of passengers and crew overboard, nearly a third of them on Carnival Cruises.
While not everyone going overboard dies, the odds on survival are not great. 18 of the those going overboard since 2000 (only 16%) were rescued. Of the 10 overboard this year alone, only 2 were rescued.
Some of these incidents are clear-cut cases of suicide, many the result of all night parties and drunken binges and more still of incredibly bad judgement, like the passenger who tried to get to the cabin next door by climbing from one balcony to the next.
A good number of the cases, however, are suspicious, and are likely the result of robbery, like the case of the passenger who went missing after winning a huge amount of money in the casino, and sexual assault.
Not the words anyone wants to hear on a cruise, but the reality is that this is something all cruise passengers ought to be aware of. It is only by being informed that we can prevent these things from happening.
The new SAFETY section at Prow’s Edge tackles this issue, with feature articles, advice and an overview of safety at sea. A “must read” for anyone taking a cruise.
The search-and-rescue mission launched by the Coast Guard out of Miami has not been able to find the young man who went overboard in the Gulf of Mexico.
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