Just this weekend there was another case of a man going overboard. On Friday a 59-year-old man from California went overboard the Emerald Princess on its way to Hilo, Hawaii. Unfortunately, CCTV footage showed the man going overboard deck 9 shortly after 4am that morning. Despite search and rescue, the man has yet to be located.
Despite the fact that it may seem like these incidences have increased recently, the number of passengers who go overboard each year is actually very small considering the amount of passengers that sail on cruise ships each year. Between 2009 and 2019, there were 212 man overboard incidents on cruise ships, according to a report issued by the CLIA – the Cruise Lines International Association. That works out to roughly 19 overboards each year. With around 25 million people cruising each year, we can see how rare they actually are.
In fact, the number of overboard incidents has been on the decrease until recently. Even then, the numbers have only gone up slightly in comparison to previous years, plus the numbers of rescues also went up. Now, these stats are based on numbers from the last Report on Operational Incidents by CLIA which took in incidents from 2009 to 2019, but they do give us a glimpse into trends.
So should cruisers worry that they might accidentally go overboard? Absolutely not. It is almost impossible to accidentally fall overboard without there being a series of bad choices leading up to it. Cruise ships have railings that are around chest height on the average person, the minimum being 42” from the deck, making it hard for anyone under 7 or 8 feet tall to just trip and fall overboard! Safety regulations, such as uniform minimum railing and balcony heights, structural barriers and other requirements are in place to prevent passengers who are acting responsibly from simply falling off a cruise ship. So how do people go overboard? Almost every overboard case is either intentional or based on really bad decisions that often include alcohol.
Unfortunately, there are people who choose to take their own life by jumping off a cruise ship. Since they often do this in the middle of the night, it can be hours later before their absence is noticed and search and rescue issued. At that point it is often too late.
Another big contribution to overboard cases has to do with alcohol and poor decision making. Sometimes it could be that someone has had too much to drink and is goofing around, standing on deck furniture or climbing over railings. Then there are the cases of people trying to get a selfie or create a viral video for social media. In their attempt to get that perfect shot, they put themselves in harms way.
It was just this June that a women went overboard the Mariner of the Seas trying to get a selfie. Luckily she was seen and the quick actions of the crew meant a happy ending for her, but that is not always the case. According to CLIA, of the 212 overboard incidents mentioned earlier, 48 of those (roughly 28%) were rescued alive. That amounts to four or five rescues each year.
The cruise industry is working towards better alert systems. Currently ships are required to have cameras set up to capture images of passengers who go overboard, which helps determine when and where a passenger went overboard, but is there more that can be done? Companies are beginning to create new technology designed to detect if a large object goes overboard on a ship. One company has developed a product that uses thermal cameras and micro radars to detect when someone has gone overboard and can alert crew members. While overboard detection systems are not required yet, I believe we will be seeing more ships choosing to install them despite the hefty price tag, and at some point in the future I imagine they will be required on all cruise ships. Maybe once the technology gets better, proves itself and there is some kind of standardization, then we will see detection and alert systems required.
Do you think that cruise ships should be required to implement the newer overboard detection systems? Let me know in the comments.
Cruising From The Ozarks 