Passenger Deaths a Concern for Cruise Industry

More than 50 people have gone overboard from cruise ships in the past decade, including suicides, unsolved cases and a handful of rescues, an analysis of incidents found.

Ships have experienced 52 cases of people going overboard - 40 of them fatally - in the past decade, most of them during Caribbean and Bahamas cruises, according to a database compiled by Canadian professor and cruise critic Ross Klein.

That's about twice as many cases as mentioned recently by the industry, he said.

Most recently, a 15-year-old Irish girl was reported to have fallen overboard from the "Costa Magica" January 6, 2006, as the ship sailed toward Cozumel, Mexico. And the disappearance last year of honeymooner George Smith IV - apparently pushed from a Royal Caribbean ship in the Mediterranean - has become fodder for cable-television news programs.

"It is unfortunate that these types of incidents happen, but no one wants this George Smith case cleared up more than we do," said Captain Bill Wright, Senior Vice President of Fleet Operations for Royal Caribbean International. He said such incidents are rare, considering that more than 8 million passengers vacation aboard cruise ships each year.

There have been dozens of incidents, including the case of Annette Mizener, a 37-year-old woman from Waukesha, Wisconsin, who disappeared while on vacation with her family aboard the "Carnival Pride" off California in December, 2004.

Klein, who has researched the cruise industry for books and a Web site, compiled the database of "overboard" cases, based on a global search of media reports and accounts corroborated by at least two witnesses.

No cruise line or ship stands out from the rest when it comes to people going overboard. The cases seem to proportionately match the cruise lines' market share and destinations.

Carnival Corp., which controls more than half of the world's cruise business through its Fun Ships and subsidiaries such as Costa Cruises and Holland America, experienced the most cases.

Florida maritime lawyer Tonya Meister said even one incident in a million is too many.

"I think people are under the misconception that cruise ships are safe and you're protected," she said. "There are no background checks conducted on passengers or crew members, and there could be repeat criminals who come out on cruise ships."

But the companies say cruising has never been safer.

"We have an agreement with the FBI to always inform them of any allegation - even an allegation - of a crime against an American citizen," Royal Caribbean's Wright said. "If you're talking about background checks, on land you can go into a restaurant or into a mall, and there could be people standing next to you who have not undergone background checks. It's far safer on a cruise ship than it is on land."