How Many Are Missing?
Cruise Lines Not Making Public Missing Overboards
July 21, 2007
Page 1 2
There is also the issue of whether a person can simply fall overboard. The industry says this is not possible. This is absolutely untrue. One of the most common illnesses onboard a cruise ship is sea sickness, and one of the most common places to vomit, is over the railing. In the case of a rather short teenage girl, Lynsey O'Brien, who was vomiting over the railing, she fell into the sea, never to be seen again.
While the reason she was ill was not due to sea sickness, the fact still remains that if a child can fall overboard vomiting, so could an adult. This may account for many of the persons who have been lost at sea, and is something worth considering for passengers and crew alike.
In addition to deliberate, reckless or alcohol involved cases, there are the many unsolved cases, where the person simply disappeared, liquor nor drugs were involved, and suicide was not suspected. There have been a total of 24 cases of overboards in 2006 through July 20, 2007, or an average of more than one a month.
This count however, is only the number the public knows about. Given Cruise Bruise has added two cases in the last week, that otherwise would have remained unknown (10% increase), how many cases of missing passengers and crew members are there really? If public reporting is not a "normal practice", then we can say it is an unusual or rare practice. I think we would be generous to say that unusual or rare would be defined as 25% or less. This would mean at 25% that the real number of overboards is four times higher than the public had thought.
With Carnival Cruise Lines now admitting that there are numerous cases not reported to the public, that in fact it is not "normal practice" for a cruise line to do so, we can only assume the number is much higher.
This brings into question the statistics the industry has presented to the public regarding cruise crime and overboard incidents. The industry as a whole, and each cruise line, have repeatedly said these crimes and incidents happen to only a very small percentage of passengers.
But, if the public thinks there are only 24 incidents of overboards during the past 19 months (22 had Cruise Bruise not reported two more), and those accounts are an abnormal sampling of rare media reports, then the numbers are much higher, and the percentage of passengers involved is much higher than the industry has lead the public to believe. We are seeing deception and avoidance of proven prevention techniques (public education) in order to protect profits.
Thinking on this, I wondered. If there were 24 incidents of people falling off rides ( cruising is nothing more than system of amusement parks) at a Disney amusement complex, and 75% of those resulted in deaths, in the past 19 months, inspite of that being a very small percentage of the millions of people who pass through Disney's gates each year, would attendance at Disney amusements drop off substantially, as the public perception became Disney amusements are unsafe?
But, what if the real number was double what the public had been lead to believe or even four times higher? Would the public lose all trust in the Disney brand, because of that public deception? You bet. What family would take their children to a Disney park if 36 people had died at their parks in the last 19 months? I think it would be safe to say, the number would decline considerably. Safety is a major concern for most people traveling. The notion of an dangerous, adventurous vacation, is only appealing to a minority.
The question the cruising public has to ask themselves now is, if you were blown overboard, accidentally fell overboard, or were tossed overboard, would you want the cruise line to do EVERYTHING in their power to find and rescue you, including a pubic notification so boaters entering the water after the event would know?
Further, if you had a family member or friend on a cruise, would you want the cruise ship to attempt to rescue that person as soon as possible, using all prudent means? Given the information we have now from Carnival Cruise Lines, that is becoming less likely to happen, as there are less people looking for the missing.
Cruising has just become much more dangerous. The message the cruise lines are sending to those crew and passengers with evil in their heart is it has just become that much easier to get away with a crime. Dead men (and women) do not talk, and when a prudent rescue is not attempted, a dead body, perhaps never seen again, will ensure evading the law.
* Passengers include:
Page 1 2
