In an article entitled "Family Seeks Answers in Disappearance of Italian Chef From Cruise Ship," the LA Times reports that family members, of an Italian chef who disappeared during a cruise, met with Princess Cruises representatives in California to obtain information regarding what happened to their son and brother. 

The family of Angelo Faliva (shown here left) had flown from Italy to meet representatives in San Pedro, California where the Coral Princess cruise ship arrived after a 15 day cruise from South Florida.

The Faliva family apparently left California without any information.

We previously reported on this disappearance in a prior article "Crew Member Missing from Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess Cruise Ship."

The cruise line industry has a notorious reputation for withholding information when there is evidence of foul play that may hurt their legal interests or may tarnish their marketing image.  Usually the families are kept away from the cruise line’s security personnel and are stuck dealing only with the cruise line’s PR department or in-house lawyers who tell them nothing.    

In this case, Princess Cruises PR representative Julie Benson said that the cruise line’s investigation allegedly did not reveal any information to explain the crew member’s disappearance. The PR representative Benson tells the LA Times:

“We are really very puzzled . . .  We don’t know what happened.”

How is it possible that the hundreds of cameras on the cruise ship did not record a single image of crew member Faliva?  Earlier this year when a passenger committed suicide by jumping off of the stern of Carnival’s Sapphire Princess, the cruise line produced the CCTV films. Did they find the CCTV because it exonerated the cruise line?   We wrote about this is a series of articles in September. 

Princess Cruises claim of being "puzzled"raises substantial questions.  

How can a happy and healthy crew member simply vanish without a trace?

Has the Faliva family been provided with a copy of the CCTV?  Was the Faliva family permitted to interview the security officer?  Did Princess arrange for them to talk to the CCTV operators and shipboard IT technicians?  Were they provided with copies of all reports and statements taken of the crew members on the cruise ship?  Were they permitted to board the ship and speak with the Master, the crew member’s co-workers and his cabin mates and friends? 

Certainly the family is entitled to more than the cruise line’s usual we-don’t-know-anything PR statement.

The International Cruise Victims organization reports that this year 23 people have gone overboard from cruise ships. 

 

Credits:

Mr. Faliva           Falavi Family via IlTempo.it 

Princess PR representative Julie Benson    Twitter @JulieBenson