Elderly Couple "Fell" off a Carnvial Ship

My heart goes out to their families. But this annoys me when it says someone "fell" off a cruise ship.

There was a Do Not Disturb sign on their door. They were 76 and 90. The door was double locked from the inside. They probably just wanted to go together.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/elderly-couple.html

That is very sad..................

it is sad but i somehow doubt that both of them fell overboard.

I too doubt that they fell overboard.

I think this is very sad for their families! I don't believe they fell! It would be interesting to know if either one of them was in poor health! I'm sure we will read more after they investigate this!

Lois

i was thinking that but didn't want to say it

I agree it is very sad for their families.

But I agree with you Michele..it is almost difficult to "fall" off a cruise ship. We have had balcony cabins and the top of the balcony comes up to my chest.

Will wait to hear what the investigation has to report.

Kim

Yes perhaps there is more to the story - time will tell.

Always sad to lose someone in your life, no matter what age. And it is a double whammy to lose both at once.

I always lock my door and put the don't disturb sign out so I don't find that suspicious in itself. In fact, perhaps the opposite could be construed. If they intended to go overboard, why would it matter if the sign was on the door knob to stop staff from coming in the next day? It would be too late to stop anything by then. Realistically, even if someone saw them fall, it would be too late for the ship to reverse and find them.

i don't find it suspicious they had the sign on the door. i do find it suspicious that both of them went over. but then again i'm extremely cynical.

Certainly more disconcerting that both went over. But then look at the odds of the USAir near disaster this week. Both engines? Has almost never happened but it just did out of the blue.


Anything is possible - people chose to stay on the Titanic so they
would "go" together. And people trying to rescue drowning people often
perish while the "drowning" person survives.

Perhaps one was trying to either help their spouse OR stop the other and accidentally fell too. The height of balcony sides/walls makes it hard to envision anything but a rogue wave causing someone to be accidentally thrust over even if they were leaning out to see something or take a photo or dry out a wet garment or who knows - we will probably never know unless someone back home can shed some light on what was going on in their lives.

it definitely doesn't sound accidental.....

oesnjstar wrote:

i don't find it suspicious they had the sign on the door. i do find it suspicious that both of them went over. but then again i'm extremely cynical.

Extremely cynical would be thinking they had someone waiting for them and they are safe ashore in Mexico waiting for the insurance payoff.

ok i'm not extremely cynical - just cynical

I have always said if it was easy to fall overboard we would hear of many children going over the side. I can't recall ever hearing of any children falling overboard. I'm 5"6" and the rails hit me mid-chest.

You are right, Barb - even in rough seas and with rogue waves, it doesn't seem to happen to children. And even though kids are less likely to fall given their shorter height- they are also more prone to acting up and pulling stunts -yet they still manage to stay onboard.

For adults to go over seems most likely an intentional act, whether suicide or murder. By the time anyone finds out about the "fall" - the ship is long gone. The ship circles back to search if notified within a reasonable amount of time.

But does anyone know if that is ever successful for a large ship? I know someone who was left at sea after a diving expedition and was found when the 24 person sized boat returned a half hour later. But that was because they knew where they had anchored for the dive so she was very very lucky they returned in time, in daylight, before the sharks, etc.

The good news is - especially for true cruise "freeks", we are still going back for more. I think we should try and live at sea at least a few weeks each year. See ya there - aloha!

not too long ago didn't 2 fall off a balcony somewhere near texas (drunk and naked) and they were rescued?

http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpage/other/man_overboard.asp

3/25/07 on the grand princess you will see that one listed

Yep, those two.

And let's not forget....

March 16, 2007: Michael Mankamyer, 35, of Orlando, survives a 60-foot plunge from a cruise ship off Fort Lauderdale. Mankamyer floats for eight hours in the Atlantic after witnesses report he lunged off the balcony of his cabin aboard the Carnival Glory. Was later arrested for sexual battery on a minor.

(the sharks should have eaten him)

July 1, 2007: After drinking with buddies on the Carnival Liberty when it leaves Fort Lauderdale, Scott Durbin climbs into a lifeboat, then plunges into the ocean. The Coast Guard fishes the 28-year-old man out of the water less than an hour later.

oh i didn't see the last one you wrote about. sexual battery on a minor? they should have kept going.

The thing that I keep thinking about on the elderly couple is how would they even know where to search? They only discovered them missing when they got back to home port. If they put the "Do Not Disturb" sign out early in the cruise they could have "gone" overboard at anytime. Unless they left the ship at anytime in ports then who knows when they were last seen.

Thanks for that page of overboard incidents - some lucky people have made it back alive all right! I had never heard of anything but bad news stories.

And I guess they weren't TOO drunk if they managed to stay afloat til found. That is really surprising to me.

you're welcome tad. yeah when you see 2 naked people bobbing around you gotta figure alcohol played some part in that.

Greta wrote:

The thing that I keep thinking about on the elderly couple is how would they even know where to search? They only discovered them missing when they got back to home port. If they put the "Do Not Disturb" sign out early in the cruise they could have "gone" overboard at anytime. Unless they left the ship at anytime in ports then who knows when they were last seen.

Housekeeping would have a log of when the steward attempted to make up the room and found the "do not disturb" sign. And the servers might remember the last time the couple was seen at dinner. And this is one of the reasons why you have to swipe your room key card when leaving and re-entering the ship in port. If they didn't return, it would be very easy for the crew to determine that the couple was in X port. So based on little things like that they can come up with a rough window of time as to "when" they may have disappeared. And then based on the ship's exact path (provided by the bridge crew) that's where the Coast Guard would look (without much hope of finding anyone, I'm sure).

oesnjstar wrote:

oh i didn't see the last one you wrote about. sexual battery on a minor? they should have kept going.

Yes, they should have.

Something wasn't right with that story from the beginning. He was a 30 something adult man who took the "neighbor boys" on cruises. I didn't want to be cynical when I first read it but something didn't sound right.

It turns out that he made advances on the boy he brought with him, then ended up jumping overboard when the boy fought back.

The sharks should have got him.

Michelle,

The sharks would've been too merciful .. you really need to let the parents (especially the moms) at creeps like that after they've been convicted.