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Three Passengers Fall Off Carnival Cruise Ships In Three Weeks

Cruises, Terrorism — on June 17, 2009 12:43 pm

Two cruise shipsLast night a 50-year-old Alabama woman disappeared from a Carnival cruise ship, making her the second person in two days—and the third in three weeks—to fall off ships operated by Carnival Cruise Lines.

Michelle Vilborg fell overboard the Carnival Holiday around 10:30 p.m. Monday while the ship was sailing about 75 miles south/southwest of Pensacola, Florida.

A crew member heard the splash and ordered a head count of all passengers and staff.

After it was determined that the woman was indeed missing, authorities were alerted and they immediately began searching for her. So far she has not been found.

A day earlier, 46-year-old Larry Miller fell off the Carnival Inspiration as it sailed into the harbor at Tampa, Florida. Miller was reportedly climbing or leaning over a railing to get a better view when he fell overboard. Luckily the Coast Guard was able to rescue Miller, who was found clinging to a buoy.

Three weeks ago, on May 24, Bruce O’Krepki of from Hammond, Louisiana, fell off the Carnival Fantasy in waters near Tampa, Florida. The 18-year-old was on a high school graduation cruise with his classmates when he disappeared. Despite an extensive search, he was never found.

The Carnival LibertyThough passengers and crew members do occasionally fall off cruise ships, the number is tiny compared to the total number of people who take cruises. Numbers are hard to come by since there is no central repository for such data, but experts estimate that about 116 people have fallen off ships in the last nine years, out of approximately 100 million who took cruises. Of those who went overboard about 20 were rescued, and the rest were never found.

There have been 12 incidents of people falling overboard so far in 2009, according to cruise expert Ross Klein. Alcohol is presumed to be the most common cause, though suicide and foul play may also be factors.

At least six of the 12 incidents this year have involved Carnival ships, but Carnival denies that its ships are somehow more dangerous that others. Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said that since its ships’ railings are 44 inches high, a person could not simply fall during the normal course of activity.

Carnival ship in CuracaoThough he did not comment on the Vilborg case, which is still under investigation, Gulliksen said that both O’Krepki and Miller clearly went overboard “as a result of their own actions,” and neither alcohol nor foul play were involved.

Gulliksen added that all of Carnival’s 22 cruise ships have signage onboard advising guests to stay out of restricted areas, plus 10 to 15 uniformed security personnel (depending on the size of the vessel) who patrol all areas of the ship 24 hours a day.

Carnival also has the cruise industry’s first “Care Team,” a group of employees specially trained to respond and support family members in the instance of an overboard or any other emergency situation that might occur.

In his appearance this morning on The Early Show on CBS, Peter talked about other measures that are being taken in the industry and in Congress to make ships safer and more accountable.

Legislation pending in Congress will require cruise lines to track all crimes and accidents that happen onboard. At the moment many cruise companies (including Carnival) voluntarily offer such information, but it is not required. In general, when incidents occur in international waters, cruise lines are only legally required to report them where the ship is registered.

Many cruise lines are also installing an extensive network of security cameras to capture anything and everything that goes on around the ship. In fact a new 5,400-passenger ship, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of Seas, will have 2,000 cameras, including infrared ones that track movement on the sides of the ship.

Watch Peter’s Early Show clip:

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

Related links: USA Today, United Press Int’l, CNN, ABC News
Related articles on PeterGreenberg.com:

  • Marcos

    This is just crazy travel news. I wonder if they’ll do anything abou it?

  • Alisha

    I could never understand why the ships didn’t have surveilance cameras? If hotels have them, why not ships? Now they’re finally installing them, after all these falls? If anything, the cameras would deter foul play. Who’s going to push their spouse overboard knowing they’re on cam? Hmm..about time.

  • NannyState

    what should they do about it? NOTHING. People must be responsible for their own actions. Or we caould just say cruises are too dangerous and ban all of them….

  • Anonymous

    Well is passengers don’t pay attention and are not careful , it is not the fault of carnival cruise ships that passengers are reckless in my opinion

  • Lindey

    There is no way that staff aboard a cruise ship could hear someone fall off. I frankly don’t believe it.

    I would never in my lifetime cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines again. From the start this line is a train wreck waiting to happen. They lied to us when booking the trip about our stateroom it suddenly had a lifeboat in it.. the old bait and switch was tried. After getting onboard my spouse tooth was broken in half, a second one chipped. They now refuse to pay for the damages even after a report was filed immediately at our table. Glass chards of heavy dinnerware was found in his sauce as my spouse chew it. Then we suddenly had security following us for the entire remainder of our trip, my spouse searched when we would reboard. Every night around three in the morning someone would try to pry our door we had to barricade our door from the inside.

    Aside from those things the food was good. Most things eaten cold by the time you found your table or by the time you stood in lines forever.

    WE felt unsafe, our legal rights we had none. Then to top that off when we got home found they suddenly add another approximate thousand dollars charged against our bank account that were not our charges. While they were reversed in a few days if I had not found them they would not have been. We never felt safe on that ship and tried to keep with other passengers. For most part it was not a fun cruise at all for us no one likes being followed or searched, pointed out by a large number of the staff.. nor awoken in the early morning hours every night as someone try to enter our stateroom. I can go on here.. it’s a total ripoff in our opinion. There is little to prove you charge beverages exception a small receipt. Anyone can charge against your account easily. I can go on and on even about apparently spiked drinks with some form of drug I actually end up getting that drink by accident it was meant for my spouse who hand it to me instead. He was targeted obviously there was some form of tropic in it that last approximately four hours of which I could not stop laughing hysterically afterward it made me sick vomiting. Never, never again!

  • jamie

    I don’t believe your story you were ethier really drunk or someone was trying To kill you. Maybe there was a cereal killer onboard.

  • lindey

    Okay…my friend was walking down the stairs which had sand on them..down she went broke her leg taken off the ship in PV Mexico. When on our ship there was a staircase outside which went from the very top of the ship, to the lower deck a area one could have easily fallen off off In the dark no one would had ever known. Or be pushed off of.. We by the way to the person who said, we must have been drunk. Please alcohol does not constitute everyone’s life..I don’t drink…and my spouse was not drunk…please what a stupid remark. Big mistakes have been made in the medical field by assuming someone is drunk..