A local CBS news station in San Francisco is reporting that a 34 year-old crew member is missing from the Grand Princess cruise ship approximately 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii.
According to the internet news report, Princess Cruises says that the man reportedly jumped overboard last night or early this morning.
The cruise ship, owned by Carnival Corporation and operated by Princess Cruises, left San Francisco last weekend on a 15-day round-trip cruise to Hilo.
The Coast Guard in Hawaii received a call from the cruise ship around 12:20 AM. The CBS station 
quoted a Coast Guard representative saying:
“The report indicated that crew member had been missing for approximately two hours and this occurred approximately 1,000 miles northeast of Oahu, Hawaii."
A spokeswoman for Princess later told KCBS that surveillance footage shows the crew member intentionally jumping overboard.
The Coast Guard dispatched a C-130 aircraft to fly to the area.
The Grand Princess, together with another Princess cruise ship, the Star Princess, is searching for the man.
CBS says that the thousands of passengers on board were confined to their cabins for a head count.
This latest overboard means that five person have gone overboard since December 10, 2013. That’s 5 people in 18 days.
Passengers went overboard from the Rhapsody of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas and Independence of the Seas, all operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises in just eleven days. Yesterday, we posted an article about a passenger going overboard from Holland America Line’s Veendam.
The fact that there was a two hour delay between the crew member going overboard and notification to the Coast Guard suggests that this Princess cruise ship did not have an automatic man overboard system as required by the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act.
In November, a woman went overboard from the Princess Grand Princess. That cruise ship also apparently did not have a man overboard system. Princess Cruises characterized that disappearance as a suicide too.
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Photo Credit: Wikipedia / Ivan T.