This weekend we received an anonymous email that a passenger died while waiting for an airlift off of the Sea Princess.  Also a passenger had gone overboard from the Sea Princess and is still missing. The ship stopped, turned around, and was still looking for the passenger as of yesterday.

As usual, passengers aboard the Sea Princess were the first commenting on these developments via the Cruise Critic online cruise community.  Dan Askin, an associate editor at Cruise Critic, published a statement from Princess Cruises which said:

We regret to confirm that early this morning as Sea Princess was cruising in the Caribbean between Curacao and Grand Turk, a 50-year-old British female passenger went overboard. 

"The ship was alerted by her husband, who had discovered her missing from their cabin, and our missing persons routine was immediately begun to account for all passengers onboard. A review of CCTV footage confirms that the passenger went over the side of the ship from a balcony cabin.

The ship immediately turned around to search the location, while also alerting the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Curacao, who launched a search plane. The search is currently continuing.

We have contacted the US FBI and the Bermuda Police Service, and we will cooperate fully into any investigation. We have also activated our Care Team.

Sea Princess is currently on a two week cruise from Barbados. The ship was on the fifth day of the sailing, which is scheduled to conclude on December 27." 

Over the past year, Princess Cruises has experienced high profile disappearances of a crew member Angelo Faliva from the Coral Princess and a passenger Ms. Edelgard Carney from the Sapphire Princess.

December 24, 2010 Update:

The British press finally picked up the story with an article "British Tourist Missing From Cruise Ship." 

Photo credit: 

Flickriver (blmiers2 )

Princess Cruises web cam