Another passenger overboard today?

[Lynnees]

They've just reported here on TV that she suffers from fibromialga. (sorry for sp). Now I understand that is a very painful desease. I wonder if she had an attack of some kind.

[jetskier]

Anyway there is no way of complete camera coverage possible. Not at land and not on ships. Something can happen everywhere and ships are nothing else than small cities with everything good and bad happening.

 

I would happen to say there are ways of getting complete coverage on land. I was a Nuclear Security Supervisor for 17 years in charge of ensuring camera coverage had no blind spots in our alarm sectors. We also used automatic recall of images stored that would give you frames before the alarm, time of alarm, and after the alarm so that the movement could easily be spotted in addition to real time video of fixed and PTZ units.

 

On ship the coverage is not intended to see who done it but to check to see if someone went overboard.

 

Dave

[woodofpine]

This isn't "crime". There is almost nowhere on deck that is not video taped.

 

Just look at the passenger traffic numbers, this is suicide (and drunks on Carnival); just like the spike in Christmas suicides - some folks can't stand a good time! Clinical depression is pernicious-nasty...

[kitty9]

We were on Celebrity Millennium which had a similar itinerary to the Jewel, and we were docked next to the Jewel in Nassau on Saturday. We experienced somewhat rough seas the night before we docked in Nassau, but there wasn't anywhere near 70mph winds. Many people were walking the decks without much of a problem, and while it was somewhat windy, it in no way was windy enough to knock people off their feet---heck, I sat on my balcony for about 2 hours in the evening after dinner. I'm disabled and have trouble walking in rough seas, and on the night before Nassau, I had no trouble walking around the ship.

 

I'm a short person at 5'1" and the railings of ships generally come up to about 8 inches below my neck. You cannot fall overboard on a cruise ship, especially the new ones. You have to be thrown, or you have to be standing on furniture or on the railing itself to fall overboard.

[fireguy091]

I'm a short person at 5'1" and the railings of ships generally come up to about 8 inches below my neck. You cannot fall overboard on a cruise ship, especially the new ones. You have to be thrown, or you have to be standing on furniture or on the railing itself to fall overboard.

 

So which is it? You can't fall overboard or only if you are doing something stupid.

:rolleyes:

[gorbat]

On Paula Zahn (CNN @ 8pm) tonight - Monday - they had a piece on the 'overboards' this past year. According to CNN, several peope have gone over this year, more than I'd heard about. So, someone is keeping stats somewhere, even if by news stories alone.

The piece was hyped as 'are you safe onboard' like it was Friday the 13th, as opposed to the particular investigations and any criminal aspect there may be - with the exception of the George Smith story and the suit the parents are bringing against RCCL.

It's very sad regardless of the reason.

[The Cruise Lady]

I agree with you that it´s tragic and I can´t understand how someone can "fall" overboard too. I too think it´s either jumping or being thrown over board. Another scenario could be an "accident". What I mean is some stupid people trying to clim railings or balconies and falling down "accidently".

 

What I disagree about is that it "becomes all too common". Again while tragic I don´t think that it really happens very often.

 

How many cases are there per year?

 

Just take RCCL (RCI & Celebrity). They have according to their website app. 60590 passenger capacity.

That results in 3150680 passengers per year (on a basis of 7 day cruises - I know there are longer and shorter ones so it´s just app.)

I don´t think they have 1 person overboard a month but even then it would be 12 per year which would result in 0,0004% .

I think in every town with over 3 million citizens there are far more suicides & murders per year. Note that these numbers don´t even count the crew which is onboard the ships too and will raise the amount of people again.

 

[This is really NOT "all too common" Out of an aproximate 20 million cruisers last year, only 15 of those unfortunate people went missing. This is not something that really happens a lot. When you are cruising you just have to be careful (especially when you are your party have been drinking)!!! It is amazing how much you read about the bad things that happen on cruises, when you don't hear nearly as much about the really cool things that happen while cruising! ]

[beachchick]

Let me just say that the day they install a camera on the PRIVATE balcony attached to my cabin is the day I stop cruising. Heck, at that point why not just put cameras in all the cabins and even in our private bathrooms?

 

I do think that PUBLIC areas should have full camera coverage though.

 

beachchick

[Have a Good Trip]

For anyone interested, this site tells about "overboards" + other events at sea for the last 4 years:eek:

 

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/events.html

[C 2 C]

latest news:

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051213.wxmissing13/BNStory/National/

[springtxbill]

Most of the missing people are jumpers, as it is almost fool proof of not ending your life, or excessive alcohol consumption with people not realizing what they are doing.

[StargazingLisa]

We just came back from a balcony cruise on Carnival.

My roomie kept leaning over the balcony which made me very nervous, and I kept pulling her back by the skirt.

 

I dont think it would be hard to fall over a balcony --people really lean over to see this or that end of the ship...makes me nervous. I think I could do without a balcony cruise after this next one and just take an ocean view...

 

And people traveling with small children in the balcony rooms , I think is insane!

 

Just my two cents.

[madforcruising]

On the Sun, there is camera coverage that is pretty extensive on the Promanade deck. It is setup correctly where one camera view overlaps the next. There were also cctv setup on the outside looking down the length of the railing. In addition, there were cctv setups on the bridge extensions looking back down the ship to cover the balconies. In this day and age with the large harddrives and digital conversion of the signal, it is easy to store large amounts of video.

 

As far as the balconies, the idea is not to look into one but to cover the length of the ship.

 

Dave

 

I just found this on another thread here on CC

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=5322445#post5322445

 

 

...I watched a spokesman from the CLIA on Paula Zahn last night talking about the millions it would cost to add cameras to watch pax balconies and every railing. Then the report went on to add it is a $25 Billion with a B industry.

 

Seems I´m not alone with my point of view that it´s hard to have all railings watched completely.

[Tangobasic]

I was on that sailing and Thursday & Friday night was rough, but not 70 mph winds. The ship was really moving and many people complained of feeling ill. I could see how you may get blown off that night as they did not have the access to the heliport locked down and that area was very very windy. You had to hold onto the hand rail and walk directly into the wind, if she got up to that area as was very thin, it could happen the railings were very very flimsy. My husband went up to take pictures twice (I was with him up there once) and the door was open with complete access. But by 6 am Saturday the winds were light and it was 9 am that morning when she was last seen by her husband/

I personally heard the woman paged on Saturday many times but the page stopped by Saturday night so we thought nothing of it. On Sunday at the Tides for breakfast many folks were discussing the fact that she was missing but no one knew what was being done about it and everyone seemed to have heard about it from someone else no one had direct info.. We were early into Fort Lauderdale and departed Nassau on time. I would assume an onboard search by the coast guard might have delayed us. I read the coast guard borded and we back tracked toward Antigua with 2 other ships to look for her but I did not see anthing like that. They also said many passengers were interviewed but I have yet to speak with anyone who saw any type of search conducted or spoke with anyone like crew personnel or coast guard about a missing person/ The news said the FBI conducted a search after we docked in Fort Lauderdale but nobody I spoke with saw any of them either.

As far as I understand it all searches have been stopped and the Bahamian Government has not requested any further help from the coast guard.

This whole situation is scary in my opinion.

Shari

[AFT_LOVER]

both had the same gal on stating that RCCL is questioning the husband with the FBI on why he waited so long to report it as they were docking to disembark.............

[spongerob]

Suicide for profit?

[schack2]

We were on the Jewel of the Seas when the 59 yr. old went missing. Didn't know anything about it until we saw it on the news Sun. evening when we returned home.

 

Our local paper said he last saw her at 9 a.m. and reported her missing at 1 p.m. I know we heard her name announced to call Customer Relations.

 

We had a balcony cabin and it's kind of hard to just fall over...they are pretty high up.

[bdenni]

Great. Just what Nancy Grace at CNN needed another story to wear out over the next upteen weeks.

[SherriZ366]

Joe Scarborough must be salavating also. Especially with today's hearings.

[Cruising Jedi]

Suicide for profit?

 

I'm not sure what this means, can you help me out here?

[wrp96]

I'm not sure what this means, can you help me out here?

 

I'm guessing but...Suicide for profit = Commit suicide so family members can collect life insurance. Most insurance policies won't let you collect if it was suicide, but if they can't find the body, they can't prove it was suicide.

[WineLovers]

I will be on the Jewel in January and am I afraid, No. Have I been drunk as hell onboard stumbling around, yes. Is it possible to fall over, yes. Do I care, no. The only thing I am sure to do is be with someone, then the only risk is that someone wants to get rid of you :) . Bad things go in phases and get press, I mean look at all the plane crashes in the last year, you all still planning on flying before the cruise?

 

So I say stop worrying and look to have some fun. Take care of yourself as you always have done before and all will be fine. Just make sure you have a good friend to toss you the life ring.

 

Crusing is for having fun not worrying.

[WineLovers]

I will be on the Jewel in January and am I afraid, No. Have I been drunk as hell onboard stumbling around, yes. Is it possible to fall over, yes. Do I care, no. The only thing I am sure to do is be with someone, then the only risk is that someone wants to get rid of you :) . Bad things go in phases and get press, I mean look at all the plane crashes in the last year, you all still planning on flying before the cruise?

 

So I say stop worrying and look to have some fun. Take care of yourself as you always have done before and all will be fine. Just make sure you have a good friend to toss you the life ring.

 

Crusing is for having fun not worrying.

[MizzouMary]

I've been working on a theory that the last night out is "Jumper Night." From the reports I've seen, most disappearances seem to be on the last night. (Seem to be; this is my own unscientific survey.) While in-cruise falls could be explained by people under the influence doing stupid things on their balconies, end-of-cruise falls tend to be by people who have been away from bad onland stuff. I stopped one on my last cruise.

 

I have heard of jumpers who end it all on their cruises due to cancer or some other life threatening illness. You wonder how many are in this type of situation leaving a note back at home for the spouse or family. I have a family friend who had cancer for over two years and didn't tell anyone. No one knew until after she died. It was very sad.

[ccrider17]

I was on that cruise and remember that name being constantly paged just before we left Nassau that night. We wondered why she was being paged so urgently.

CC