A 69-year-old cruise ship passenger has been lost overboard at Glacier Bay National Park/Kurt Repanshek file
Editor's note: An update to this story can be found at this page: Man Overboard For 9 Hours Before Being Reported Missing At Glacier Bay National Park
A 69-year-old passenger of a Holland America cruise ship has been lost overboard at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
In a brief news release, the park said Saturday night that it had suspended its search for the man, who was reported missing from Westerdam on Friday. The individual was reported missing at 3:50 p.m. when he did not appear for a medical appointment on board, a park release said.
The Park Service was notified 7:30 Friday evening after a ship-wide search confirmed that the passenger was absent.
Searches for the unidentified passenger were conducted both from Park Service boats and from the air, supported by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The release did not say where along the 65-mile Glacier Bay the man was reported missing, and park staff could not immediately be reached Sunday morning.
This file photo of the Holland America Westerdam was released by the National Park Service.
Comments
I've been on 17 cruises ,16 seven day and 1 eight day and had a few problems along the way , The last one I learned my lesson and will never go again , Their little nursing room is no good and 911 calls are worthless ,Had to beg them on the second call to come to the room , Bottom Line -- booze and bucks !!! Stock Prices top priority which do pay a nice dividend ..
I read in an update on this story that it was 9 hours before the man was reported missing. So there would be no way on earth to know where the man went overboard.
I guess you should have taken charge, then. I guess the captain is to blame for this person going overboard, too. It's so easy to throw stones.
CeCe, you should have taken charge! I'm sure then the poor soul would have been found alive and warm and sipping hot chocolate as he awaited your arrival to save him. Don't throw stones!
i was onboard this ship when the incident occurred. When he was reported missing, meetings were interrupted, announcements were made and a room by room search of the entire ship was made by a security team. We also stopped sailing and circled an area for almost two hours. Of course we passengers did not know what was occurring but suspected.
I can can assure you the crew, and especially Captain Smith, were devastated. Captain Smith briefly addressed the incident by only saying that his thoughts and prayers were with the family, which was still onboard, and out of respect for them he would not discuss the incident. He never stated what the incident was, only that there were a lot of questions from passengers what had occurred. Our course was changed drastically and we were late arriving at the next destination. The mood on board was definitely more somber as everyone reflected on our fellow passenger and his family.
I have utmost respect for Captain Smith and my feeling is that he did all that was necessary and a large cruise ship can do only so much for search and rescue. The experts were called in as soon as all onboard measures and protocol were followed.
My thoughts and prayers go out to this devastated family.
I was on this voyage and we are all saddened by his families loss. I was surprised however, that the ship never stopped, but I assume it was far too late by that time and the captain made the correct choice. It is my understanding that one has only approximately 15 minutes to survive in Glacier waters, this I learned from a glacier expert on board.
Not normally possible. Cruise ships have very elaborate embarking and disembarking procedures with ID cards and security personnel and metal detectors and x-ray stuff so you can't usually get on unless you are supposed to be a passenger on a boat.
I too was on that cruise!! Just an awful, unfortunate tragedy!!
They combed that boat everywhere With no success!! our condolences!!