Another (non DCL) guest overboard

[wilkeliza]

Rather than trying to make it a law, which will probably result in additional cumbersome regulation/restrictions driving up the cost of cruising, a lawsuit that will inevitably be filed by this woman's family could result in a settlement where Carnival will voluntarily agree to install the system to prevent long gaps between passengers going overboard and the search and rescue from beginning in the future. While no one is to blame for this woman going overboard besides this woman, it is an embarrassment for Carnival that she was in the water 15 HOURS before they called the Coast Guard. An online petition could also put enough pressure on Carnival to make this happen. In the end, it probably wouldn't have made a difference. Searching for someone in the dark open water in the middle of the night after a fall from that high rarely results in a successful rescue but it could increase the chances.

Seeing as this isn't Carnival's first overboard with out the system in place I don't think a lawsuit or petition is going to make much difference. Making it required to do business in certain ports is what it is going to take at this point. Yes at night it is harder and most likely not going to end in a found alive person but it does significantly up the chances the faster an alert goes out.

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

It sounds like she might have been sitting on the railing talking to friends because they reported that she fell backwards. You know how at night there are no chairs to sit on on the upper deck because they stack and secure them. I wonder if she was just looking for somewhere to sit snd not thinking about what she was doing.

You would really have to hop up there (or climb) to sit on the railing, at least on DCL. I'm guessing that ship is the same. Anyway, I would be surprised if she probably survived the fall, as she fell backwards from Deck 10. This is probably 80+ ft. above the water.

 

[MUN]

While no one is to blame for this woman going overboard besides this woman

Do you know this for a fact?

 

[Rabb it]

Oh dear how awful

 

[Hundredacre]

So if it is true that carnival did not know about this until 15 hours afterwards and they have her on film voluntarily climbing the railing and her friends did not alert anyone until hours later, it sounds like suicide. There is also no mention of her friends in the video, if this is true and she was alone, it does sound like suicide. But obviously I have no idea/ just speculation.

On another topic, I am in the no regulation camp. I don't think they should force cruise lines to have lifeguards either. I just cannot believe no one would miss her for 15 hours. I cannot escape my kids and husband for five minutes..

 

[Jennifer777]

Seeing as this isn't Carnival's first overboard with out the system in place I don't think a lawsuit or petition is going to make much difference.

What may set this one apart from the others is the fact she was overboard for 15 hours before they called the CG and 10 hours before they even knew she was missing. Who knows, it may not make a difference but at least in this case, the argument can be made that this alert system could have made a difference. In all the cases where the person went overboard and there were witnesses and they found out right away, it's harder to make that argument.

Do you know this for a fact?

I guess I'm trusting Carnival since they have reviewed the video and they are saying she climbed up and sat on the railing and fell backwards overboard, that foul play is not suspected so unless those reports are wrong, and I guess they could be, it would appear no one else caused this horrific accident. I hope they do find out for sure what happened so her family won't spend the rest of their days wondering. Her poor children.

 

[Sytrace]

So if it is true that carnival did not know about this until 15 hours afterwards and they have her on film voluntarily climbing the railing and her friends did not alert anyone until hours later, it sounds like suicide. There is also no mention of her friends in the video, if this is true and she was alone, it does sound like suicide. But obviously I have no idea/ just speculation.

On another topic, I am in the no regulation camp. I don't think they should force cruise lines to have lifeguards either. I just cannot believe no one would miss her for 15 hours. I cannot escape my kids and husband for five minutes..

According to the news reports, her friends noticed she was missing in the afternoon and alerted the ship officials right away. The ship officials reviewed the video and saw her fall overboard at 2:00 AM. Then they conducted a shipwide search for her (this does not make sense as they have video of her falling backwards overboard) After the ship search found nothing THEN they notified the CG and they started searching the waters.

I am pretty sure, I could stretch being missing to 15 minutes...but no longer.

 

[MUN]

This is going off topic, but I just cruised a few weeks ago with RCCL with MIL & SIL. The amount of drunks was just ridiculous One day a woman was so drunk at 2pm she removed her clothing at the pool and was shaking her goods.

I remember my first beer!

 

[darnheather]

It is a very sad story, but I tend to agree a little with @Ofinn.

This is going off topic, but I just cruised a few weeks ago with RCCL with MIL & SIL. The amount of drunks was just ridiculous and RCCL was doing some serious pushing of the drink packages. I've always enjoyed my RCCL cruises, but this trip was awful and I don't see myself returning to RCCL in the near future. There is no reason for adults to be so drunk they are puking on the pool decks, hallways and stairwells. Security was always carting someone off to their rooms who was too drunk to even stand. One day a woman was so drunk at 2pm she removed her clothing at the pool and was shaking her goods. I'm not against drinking. I brought wine onboard and bought a couple mixed drinks. Yes, you can get seriously drunk without a drink package, but mixed drinks started at $10 plus auto 18% gratuity on RCCL and only went up from there. Heck, the bar inside the buffet was open at breakfast and always had a good sized crowd over there.

My good friends had the same experience last fall. They will never cruise with RCCL again. The employees were encouraging people to take off their clothes at the family pool.

 

[RedSox68]

When I think of a ship like The Dream I wonder how on earth do people 'fall' off a cruise ship? I mean not like you can slip and then splash...

The Dream has all this screening. I guess not on every deck but you would have to be crazy to climb onto the side to sit wouldn't you?

I just don't get it at all. That poor ladies family :-( olus how scary for her.

Disney just settled the Rebecca Coriam case. She fell or was pushed over the side -- but they never found her and really don't know what happened. Very sad as she was a CM in the kids club.

 

[Jennifer777]

Interesting. A reporter from Houston posted this picture on Twitter claiming there is blood near the area where the woman went overboard and a knife in the garbage nearby. Carnival is vehemently denying this is blood and saying there was no knife. The FBI is now involved which is supposedly standard procedure.

https://twitter.com/KPRCSofiaOjeda/status/732208141329276929

 

[RedSox68]

Interesting. A reporter from Houston posted this picture on Twitter claiming there is blood near the area where the woman went overboard and a knife in the garbage nearby. Carnival is vehemently denying this is blood and saying there was no knife. The FBI is now involved which is supposedly standard procedure.

https://twitter.com/KPRCSofiaOjeda/status/732208141329276929

This seems like very poor journalism and very speculative. I'm sure the FBI and investigators will confirm about the knife. But if this woman was indeed stabbed and thrown overboard, then the video Carnival has of her merely sitting on the rail and falling backwards would be contrary to that theory!

 

[DnA2010]

It is a very sad story, but I tend to agree a little with @Ofinn.

This is going off topic, but I just cruised a few weeks ago with RCCL with MIL & SIL. The amount of drunks was just ridiculous and RCCL was doing some serious pushing of the drink packages. I've always enjoyed my RCCL cruises, but this trip was awful and I don't see myself returning to RCCL in the near future. There is no reason for adults to be so drunk they are puking on the pool decks, hallways and stairwells. Security was always carting someone off to their rooms who was too drunk to even stand. One day a woman was so drunk at 2pm she removed her clothing at the pool and was shaking her goods. I'm not against drinking. I brought wine onboard and bought a couple mixed drinks. Yes, you can get seriously drunk without a drink package, but mixed drinks started at $10 plus auto 18% gratuity on RCCL and only went up from there. Heck, the bar inside the buffet was open at breakfast and always had a good sized crowd over there.

Haven't seen this on either of our cruises on RCL (Oasis and Freedom)
We enjoyed the drink packages as did others but didn't see any really drunk people

 

[DnA2010]

My good friends had the same experience last fall. They will never cruise with RCCL again. The employees were encouraging people to take off their clothes at the family pool.

I find this very hard to believe.

 

[RedSox68]

Haven't seen this on either of our cruises on RCL (Oasis and Freedom)
We enjoyed the drink packages as did others but didn't see any really drunk people

We did not see this on even our Carnival cruise -- which is known as a "party ship". Drinking may have had nothing to do with it -- it just may have been a careless act of sitting on the rail and losing her balance. Very sad and unfortunate.

 

[hanscarlet]

wow so if her friends reported her missing that means she decided to sit on the railing by herself and probably just fell over.... for some reason I assumed she was with friends at the time she was sitting on the railing... I don't know why I assumed that other than to say that why the heck would you sit out on a railing by yourself? That sounds even more stupid than actually sitting on a railing in the first place... but I suppose she wasn't in her right mind so trying to apply logic to the situation is probably not the way to go... the twitter photo of stating that the dropped cocktail drink is blood was interesting... media moves fast lol

anyways my thoughts are with her and her family, how incredibly tragic, really just horrible

 

[Capt_BJ]

at this time ... from the stories I've seen ....

- person is reported as missing at noon .... nothing mentions what was last time anyone says they saw her

- ship begins a ship search ... this takes time .... and also begins to review tapes form the MANY MANY cameras today's cruise ships have.

- ship determines person IS missing

- tape review EVENTUALLY sees the incident which would have occurred 10 hours b4 the first report .....

- tape shows person was sitting on the rail ( a HUGE HUGE no no for any sailor) and falls backward at 2 AM

I've done these searches, overseen similar cases and been investigating officer in some others ....

Questions I'd have high on my list ....

2 AM on deck ..... ALONE????

Not noticed missing until noon?????

 

[sayhello]

at this time ... from the stories I've seen ....

- person is reported as missing at noon .... nothing mentions what was last time anyone says they saw her

- ship begins a ship search ... this takes time .... and also begins to review tapes form the MANY MANY cameras today's cruise ships have.

- ship determines person IS missing

- tape review EVENTUALLY sees the incident which would have occurred 10 hours b4 the first report .....

- tape shows person was sitting on the rail ( a HUGE HUGE no no for any sailor) and falls backward at 2 AM

I've done these searches, overseen similar cases and been investigating officer in some others ....

Questions I'd have high on my list ....

2 AM on deck ..... ALONE????

Not noticed missing until noon?????

I'm only speculating, but she was not traveling with her family, she was traveling with a group. Perhaps they all did their own thing in the mornings, and then met up for lunch to plan the rest of the day? At that point, they noticed she didn't show. I think that's totally plausible.

Sayhello

 

[hubbard53]

I'm glad I'm scared of heights. Acrophobia is obviously an evolutionary advantage.

 

[MUN]

I'm only speculating, but she was not traveling with her family, she was traveling with a group. Perhaps they all did their own thing in the mornings, and then met up for lunch to plan the rest of the day? At that point, they noticed she didn't show. I think that's totally plausible.

Sayhello

Perhaps, one of them pushed her overboard? I think that's totally plausible.