A 72-year-old American man is missing and feared dead after apparently falling overboard from the Ruby Princess cruise ship during a voyage, according to reports by the New York Post. The man, who has not been identified, was traveling alone on the Ruby Princess, which had departed from San Francisco on November 27 for a five-day trip to Ensenada, Mexico.
The Incident
When the Ruby Princess docked back in San Francisco at approximately 6:50 a.m. on Monday, December 2, the man was unaccounted for, prompting an investigation by Princess Cruises and local authorities, as reported by The Independent. Despite multiple searches of the ship and an extensive review of CCTV footage, the man was not found, and the incident was ruled a “man overboard”, according to Metro.
“Princess worked throughout the day with local authorities. CCTV footage has also been extensively reviewed and the ship was searched thoroughly several times without success,” a spokesperson for Princess Cruises stated, as reported by Fox News.
The U.S. Coast Guard was called to assist in the investigation on Monday afternoon and dispatched two aircraft to search the waters 45 miles off the coast of Monterey, California, as reported by The Independent. However, they suspended their search for the missing man on Monday night without success.
Petty Officer Hunter Schnabel said the California Highway Patrol was assisting the cruise line in the investigation, as reported by Los Angeles Times. Officials believe the man fell overboard at some point during the five-day voyage around Mexico, though it remains unclear exactly when the incident occurred and the cause is not immediately clear, according to Fox News.
Difficult Search
One Coast Guard official commented on the challenges of the search: “Searching a wide area of the ocean takes a lot of time, and a lot goes into that,” the official said, as reported by The Daily Beast. The official also noted, “What information we have to go off kind of does make it a little more difficult,” according to Metro.
Princess Cruises extended their “heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the guest who was traveling alone,” spokesperson Briana Latter stated, as reported by NationalWorld. The cruise line is cooperating fully with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the investigation, according to the Mirror.
The Ruby Princess, a ship that is 195 feet high and can host up to 3,080 passengers and 1,100 crew members, was scheduled to depart at 5 p.m. on December 2 for a 16-day voyage to the Hawaiian Islands but postponed its trip due to the incident. Despite the delay, the ship managed to depart later on December 2 for the voyage to Hawaii.
The Ruby Princess website refers to the ship as “a luminous jewel on the seas and a romantic destination in itself,” as stated by Metro.
Military aircraft were seen scouring the waters for signs of the missing man. The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched two aircraft to search the area off the California coast, but the search was suspended without finding the passenger, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Princess Cruises did not immediately respond to a message seeking additional details about the incident, including where the passenger was believed to have gone overboard.
This incident is not the first time a cruise passenger has gone overboard this year. In August, urgent search efforts for a British passenger who reportedly fell overboard from a cruise ship near Croatia were called off after four days, as reported by The Independent.
Croatian authorities confirmed on August 9 that a “young citizen of the United Kingdom,” reported to be a man, went missing from the cruise that had departed Saturday, August 3, and had not been seen since, according to The Independent. Sanjin Dumanic, president of the Association of Croatian Sea Captains, said at the time: “Since the man has been in the sea for over 40 hours, we are already losing hope. We would all like him to be found, but 40 hours is a very long time, and we are losing hope that this search will end successfully,” as reported by The Independent.
In September, the Ruby Princess made headlines when passengers were injured in an incident where their tour bus overturned near Skagway, Alaska, according to Newsweek.
Cruise ship incidents such as these raise concerns about passenger safety and highlight the importance of stringent security measures onboard. Authorities and cruise lines often conduct extensive investigations and search efforts when such incidents occur, though not all searches result in successful outcomes.
