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Another cruise disappearance

September 12, 2006

Here we go again. An Ohio woman has gone missing from a Carnival ship on a four-day cruise to Key West and Mexico. She is presumed to have fallen overboard. During the last six years, 62 passengers have gone overboard and died on cruises, according to a tally by the Safecruise blog.

A few weeks ago I suggested that the worst case of customer service was to be killed in a plane crash. I stand corrected. It is equally bad to fall off a ship and drown — and perhaps as negligent of a cruise line to allow something like that to happen.

Details on the “disappearance” remain sketchy. We know that it is an unidentified 36-year-old woman who was last seen on Sunday. The FBI doesn’t suspect foul play, at least for now.

I’ve blogged about the “man overboard” problem and you would think after the latest incident, the death of 22-year-old Elizabeth Galeana, something would be done, at least publicly, to ease concerns. Instead, the cruise industry seems to think that there is no problem.

If the cruise lines remain in denial, I think the government will have no choice but to step in and regulate security on cruise ships in a meaningful way.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

3 comments

  • Ron Cann

    I would suggest that these are robberies and/or rapes by crew members (or a preditory fellow passenger!) who then dispose of the passenger to cover their tracks. It is impossible to believe that these are all accidental deaths do to passenger negligence. Has there been any tracking of incidents and members of crews or recurrent passengers on these cruise ships?

  • joshua katt

    Do absoluetely nothing. Take the “occurances” and divide by the millions and millions of crusiers over the period and I’m sure the rate is much lower then a comparble city for crime and such. You just can’t prevent every single person in the world from harming themselves whether on purpose or inadvertantly. The US will go broke trying and lawyers will find a way to sue regardless. How about taking personal responsibility for one’s actions, even if it results in death? There is an entire bell curve of intellengence out there, there is a certain % that you will never save and go broke trying to….

  • Ed

    In most cities, if you are drunk and a bar serves you alchohol and you get into an accident, the bar owner is partially responsible…
    The same should be for cruise ships. If you are clearly showing that you are drunk, it should be the law that the bar tender is not to server you any more alchohol.
    Besides..how drunk do you have to be to fall overboard? Perhaps these are darwin award candidates?

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