A 77-year-old woman went overboard from Holland America Line's Nieuw Statendam cruise ship on New Year's Day during a Caribbean cruise. The search was abandoned after eight hours, with the passenger still missing.
This incident is the latest in a series of high-profile cases involving passengers falling off cruise ships in recent months. In November, a 73-year-old passenger is believed to have died after jumping overboard on a Disney Wonder sailing to New Zealand. In October, a cruise passenger is presumed dead after falling overboard near Portugal on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.
Despite these cases, cruise industry representatives stress that such incidents are extremely rare. Andy Harmer, director of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), said: 'A cruise holiday is one of the safest forms of travel. Cruise ships today are the safest that ever sailed.'
Data from CLIA shows that between 2009 and 2019, there were 212 man overboard incidents on cruise ships, roughly 19 each year. More recent data from the CruiseJunkie blog puts the figure at 431, still a tiny amount compared with the 32 million who typically go on a cruise each year.
Cruise blogger Emma Le Teace said: 'Luckily, it is almost impossible to fall off a cruise ship. There are still people who manage to fall accidentally – usually while doing something silly or dangerous.' Research by CLIA shows that in every man overboard incident recorded between 2009 and 2019, it was found to be an 'intentional or reckless act.'
