Another missing person?

[DeltaOne]

Coast Guard searches for woman missing from cruise ship

 

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- A U.S. Coast Guard plane was searching Sunday

for a Canadian woman who may have fallen overboard from a Florida-based

cruise ship off the Bahamas, an official said.

 

Jill Begora, 59, was reported missing by her husband Saturday morning

as the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Jewel of the Sea pulled into Nassau,

the Bahamian capital, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said.

 

The ship's crew searched the vessel for Begora before filing a missing

person's report with the Coast Guard Saturday night, according to a

Coast Guard statement.

 

"They did a full ship search and there was no evidence that she had

left the ship in Nassau," leading authorities to believe she may have

fallen overboard, Warr said.

 

A Coast Guard C-130 plane was conducting an overhead search about 25

miles northeast of Nassau, the area where the ship was when Begora was

first reported missing, Warr said. A Coast Guard helicopter found no

sign of the woman Saturday evening.

 

The cruise ship arrived early Sunday in Fort Lauderdale's Port

Everglades, where Coast Guard officials conducted an onboard

investigation, the Coast Guard said. The findings will be turned over

to the FBI.

[jennew]

I just posted this too. :)

 

Bad year for RCCL huh?

[gopher's girl]

Instead of searching the ship first, why not report to the coast guard within 30 minutes? That way maybe they would have a chance!

[MaryPoppinz]

Not sure how long it takes to search the ship when everybody that does that kind of thing is mobilized, but I'm sure it's a hard call to make whether to alert the Coast Guard immediately or ascertain first there is really someone AWOL.

 

One of my nieces was long on the ship when she heard herself being paged to the Purser as the gangway was being raised. Somehow, she was on the ship but her cruise card recorded her as being OFF the ship. So, I suppose there is a certain amount of time they spend trying to do what makes the most sense first -- looking for a lost passenger *onboard.*

[cruzinchris]

Greetings, Paul from Maryland.

I hadn't heard about this until I noticed your thread; creepy, isn't it?

 

Mostly I just wanted to wish you Bon Voyage! as you get ready to sail away on the Sapphire this weekend. I hope the weather is wonderful and that you enjoy yet another fabulous Princess cruise.

 

The roll call for the 1/28/06 cruise on the Caribbean Princess has grown quite a bit in recent weeks; I think we have at least 40 people now. We plan to meet at Outrigger's after the muster drill just like our group did this past January.

 

We haven't received our pre-cruise packet yet; when it arrives, it makes the upcoming cruise a reality. We've booked shore excursions in St. Thomas (St. John's Beach & Snorkel) and St. Martin (Orient Beach), but we don't usually make any definite plans for what to do at Princess Cays. I also booked a facial in the spa; I don't like the high-pressure sales tactics, but I'm willing to give the onboard spa another chance.

 

Best wishes for a happy holiday season, a fantastic cruise, good health and many blessings in the coming year...

Chris

[Drumbum1977]

Any updates yet on the Canadian woman? What town was she from etc??

[chrysalis]

Some reports suggest that she was from Victoria BC, but Canadian authorities have not confirmed.

 

Family is being offered "consular" services at the moment.

[sashas_mom]

I heard a blip about this on the news last night before they went to commercial break and waited and waited to see what the story was because they never came back to it. Thank you for posting it. I just find it incredibly ridiculous when they say "she must have fallen overboard!"As I mentioned in a post about another cruiser who was missing on a cruise ship, how in the world can you just "fall overboard"??? You'd literally have to climb up and over..I find this very frustrating and wonder if there is a crew member out there who has been on these different ships that someone has gone missing on? Are these women being raped and then tossed overboard? I realize there is a lot of crime no matter where you are everyday, and I can see being concerned when you are on the city streets, but a cruise ship????? I guess you can't really "get away from it all".

sasha'smom

[Gayle2]

One of my nieces was long on the ship when she heard herself being paged to the Purser as the gangway was being raised. Somehow, she was on the ship but her cruise card recorded her as being OFF the ship. So, I suppose there is a certain amount of time they spend trying to do what makes the most sense first -- looking for a lost passenger *onboard.*

 

This happened on a cruise that my mom and I were on several years ago on the Star Princess. About a half hour AFTER the ship had left Cabo San Lucas our phone rang and the purser flunky asked whether she was on board as her card hadn't registered. I asked him if it wasn't really a dumb thing to wait until the ship was a half hour out before checking up on her. He didn't have a better response than "uhh huh". Sheesh!!!

 

At least they were calling your niece's name before they left port.

[Lynnees]

She was from here, St. Catharines, Ontario but has recently moved out west. Her husband was a local dentist. She was last seen Saturday morning about 9 a.m. by him.

 

Sad.....

[dan40]

Another thought about people going missing from cruise ships. Using 2002 suicide attempts and figuring about 6 million cruisers per year. There should be 671 suicides aboard [overboard?] cruise ships each year. Cruising being a happy place, the rate is much less but for sure a large percent of missing pax are actually suicides

 

Dan

[Pam in CA]

When someone has fallen overboard and been found, almost invariably they were drinking and sitting or standing on the railing. It's hard to fall overboard but some people just don't pay any attention to the safety requests. I once saw a guy holding his toddler on the railing with one hand while turned and talking to people next to him. I couldn't believe he'd be that stupid but people do stupid things.

[chrysalis]

Pam,

 

was his name M. Jackson?

 

Dan40,

 

I think you are right..that has been my view all along

[Host CJSKIDS]

They just announced on the news that the coast guard has called off the search for her. What a shame, I just can't see how someone can just fall off a ship unless they're highly intoxiated, are pushed, or want to go over.

[DeltaOne]

Mostly I just wanted to wish you Bon Voyage! as you get ready to sail away on the Sapphire this weekend. I hope the weather is wonderful and that you enjoy yet another fabulous Princess cruise.

 

The roll call for the 1/28/06 cruise on the Caribbean Princess has grown quite a bit in recent weeks; I think we have at least 40 people now. We plan to meet at Outrigger's after the muster drill just like our group did this past January.

Thanks! We fly out to LAX Friday morning. We haven't packed a thing yet, we've been racing to finish preparations for the holiday (since we fly home Christmas Eve). We'll begin packing tomorrow night, plus my wife has Thursday off to finish the packing.

 

You should be receiving your cruise packet in the next week or so. Say "hello" to the Caribbean Princess for us, we hope to sail her again. I know you'll have a wonderful cruise! Best wishes to you and your family.

[rho88]

Instead of searching the ship first' date=' why not report to the coast guard within 30 minutes? That way maybe they would have a chance![/quote']

 

I don't think that's a good idea. Unless you are sure someone is missing there's no point alerting the Coast Guard. If RCL called the Coast Guard everytime they think someone is missing, the Coast Guard would be very busy!!! What if the missing person was just napping somewhere and didn't hear the pagging?

[dan40]

If someone is seen to go overboard the ship will perform a manuever that gets it headed back on its exact path in the shortest possible time. I think its called a Miller turn, but could be wrong about that. We were on a ship that announced they were going to practice this turn and were very definite about hanging on when it happened. Its like a violent "S" and a half. and supposedly the ship ends up in the same spot the turn started but facing the other direction.. It was interesting.

 

Dan

[MaryPoppinz]

At least they were calling your niece's name before they left port.

 

They were raising the gangway and leaving port. There was no way she could have made the ship, even if she had been on the pier. They had effectively left port.

 

By the time she got to the purser's desk to find out why they were paging her (she didn't know *why* they were paging, and never dreamed it was because they thought she was AWOL -- she obvious knew she wasn't!), they were several minutes out of port, and they were paging her a second time. The ship was long gone by the second page.

[holidayathesea]

Another thought about people going missing from cruise ships. Using 2002 suicide attempts and figuring about 6 million cruisers per year. There should be 671 suicides aboard [overboard?] cruise ships each year. Cruising being a happy place, the rate is much less but for sure a large percent of missing pax are actually suicides

 

Dan

 

Hold up, wait a minute....

 

What you are computing makes no sense at all. What 2002 numbers are you using, where are they from, are they credible, and most importantly, are they the numbers directly FOR cruise ship attempts?

 

IMPO, I feel that you'd have to be amazingly stupid to commit suicide on a cruise ship, although I guess some people just want to go out with a bang.

 

Anyways, just my $0.02 on that.

[holidayathesea]

I don't think that's a good idea. Unless you are sure someone is missing there's no point alerting the Coast Guard. If RCL called the Coast Guard everytime they think someone is missing, the Coast Guard would be very busy!!! What if the missing person was just napping somewhere and didn't hear the pagging?

 

And, what if they really are missing, and they could have had the chance to save a person? I grew up being a lifeguard, and while that is very different, I also see some similarities here. I know the cruiseship is a much bigger scale, but hear me out...

 

As a lifeguard and a manager at the pool, we dealt with MANY missing kids. They would be called over the PA system, but often times the kids are so young they are either too busy playing, don't yet know their last name, or don't know WHERE to go to find mom and dad/mgr's office. As lifeguards we were trained that when we first heard a page going off for a child, to keep your eyes peeled for someone who looks as though they are missing. We are constantly scanning the water to begin with, but do extra scanning and different types of scanning, as well as scanning other areas that aren't normally scanned to assist in finding the missing child. There was one incident where the child was found floating in the pool. It looked as if the child was playing a game--deadman's float, and the lifeguards didn't realize it until the poor girl was already blue, of course that was when the guards went in. My point here is, it's better to err (sp?) on the side of caution than to perhaps lose someone forever.

 

To me, it's sad that cruiseships wouldn't call the Coast Guard immediately.

 

I know I'm in for some responses on this one, but I dont' know that I'll be able to get back to them, I'm in the middle of my college exams, packing up, moving home, and then GOING ON MY CRUISE!!! WAHOO!

 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good cruise!

[Pam in CA]

When a ship has determined that the person really isn't onboard, the local authorities are notified immediately. Frankly, the media usually gets the info wrong and prints what it thinks happened based on speculation. A case in point is the missing husband. Almost nothing that was published was correct and they could have verified their info from the public documents. Makes you kind of wonder about the media sometimes.

[dan40]

Holidayatsea,

The numbers come from the CDC. 2002 is the latest year I could find on their site. Nearly 300,000 attempted or successfully committed suicide in the US that year. Extrapolating that number down to 6,000,000 cruisers comes out to 671 if all else was normal. As I stated, a cruise ship is a happy place so the rate[unknown] is less, thankfully, but still a large percentage of "missing" cruisers have to be suicide. Even at one tenth of the normal society rate it would be 67 attempts per year on ships. Major problem being that an "attempt" off a ship is almost always fatal.

Some are suicides,

Some are foul play,

Some are terminally drunk,

Some are mortally stupid,

and some are accidents.

However one would think that kids would be involved in more accidents than adults, yet I do not remember EVER hearing about a child overboard.

 

Dan

[holidayathesea]

Holidayatsea,

The numbers come from the CDC. 2002 is the latest year I could find on their site. Nearly 300,000 attempted or successfully committed suicide in the US that year. Extrapolating that number down to 6,000,000 cruisers comes out to 671 if all else was normal. As I stated, a cruise ship is a happy place so the rate[unknown] is less, thankfully, but still a large percentage of "missing" cruisers have to be suicide. Even at one tenth of the normal society rate it would be 67 attempts per year on ships. Major problem being that an "attempt" off a ship is almost always fatal.

Some are suicides,

Some are foul play,

Some are terminally drunk,

Some are mortally stupid,

and some are accidents.

However one would think that kids would be involved in more accidents than adults, yet I do not remember EVER hearing about a child overboard.

 

Dan

 

Either way, it's a sad world we live in. I pray for all of those people who feel that they need to end their lives or someone elses. Life can be a beautiful thing if you can master how to live it.

[spongerob]

The Drudge Report has linked a story from that scion of news outlets, ABC. Two things were reportedly incorrectly in the first paragraph, concerning the case of last summer's disappearance of a newlywed near Turkey. First, they state a passenger in a neighboring cabin heard screams, which is denied by the individual occupying the cabin in question, and second, that blood was found "on the deck" of the ship.

 

The fact that many reporters repeat only what has already been written by others, and do none of their own research, should give those reading their output cause to consider the profit motive involved in printing such stories.

[Baxter]

Holidayatsea,

Nearly 300,000 attempted or successfully committed suicide in the US that year.

 

If accurate, that would probably be a gross underestimate. It would depend on the definition of "attempt" -- the only way a suicide attempt would make it to the CDC is probably if it were reported to authorities. Many are not.