A newspaper in Belize is reporting that a 21 year old cruise passenger went overboard from Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas cruise ship and disappeared today.
7 News Belize reports that the passenger went overboard from the 12th deck of the cruise ship. The passenger’s family noticed that he was missing around 9:00 a.m. this morning. When the young man could not be located on the ship, the crew reviewed video from the security cameras that showed him going overboard from the twelfth deck of the ship at 3:25 am. The article indicates that is is unclear whether the passenger jumped or fell.
This is a story which has not been reported in the mainstream press, yet. It is highly unlikely that the young man jumped as speculated by the media in Belize. Was he over-served alcohol, which would reflect negligence by the cruise line? Was there evidence of foul play, again not likely but to be considered.
A pro-cruise website "Cruise News Daily" has a few sentences on the incident which seems to be based on the Belize newspaper. But the website claims that "a review of the ship’s security cameras found footage of the man climbing over the railing on Deck 12, and then letting go." There is no reference to a source for this allegation.
Does someone on the cruise have information regarding this sad story?
January 7, 2011 Update:
A radio station in Belize has the following information regarding this incident:
"Search efforts for a missing cruise ship passenger were halted today as the Port Authority of Belize and National Coast Guard Service were given directives to discontinue their efforts. 53-year-old Puerto Rican Margarita Sandini Tello reported that her son 21-year-old Jose Miguel Pietri Tello was missing off the cruise ship, Liberty of the Seas. Surveillance cameras showed the young man jumping or falling off the twelfth deck of the ship shortly after three thirty on Wednesday morning. The family of the twenty one year old reported to cruise personnel that they noticed that he was missing around 9:00 on Wednesday morning and when he could not be located on the ship, the crew reviewed video from the security cameras. The Belize Port Authority along with the National Coast Guard were called in to search for the body as the incident occurred in Belize waters . . . "
A newspaper in Belize contains a quote from the local police that “video footage was obtained where it was observed that Jose [Jose Miguel Pietri Tello, 21, of Puerto Rico] jumped off the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship at 3:38 a.m.”
January 9, 2011 Update:
Passengers from the cruise ships are indicating that the young man may have been over-served alcohol which resulted in him becoming disoriented and falling from the cruise ship. The Belize translation of events that this young man "jumped" seem bogus. Is this an incident like young cruise passenger Daniel DiPiero who was over-served alcohol and disappeared from Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas after being over-served alcohol?
January 19, 2011 Update:
We received a number of comments (below) emailed from a "Joe" using a hotmail email account. The comments are the usual its-a-matter-of-personal-responsibility rather than corporate responsibility type of thing. Very disrespectful. We have determined, 100%, that the comments came from a computer at Royal Caribbean. Is it a PR person or someone in a position of management? Or a misguided employee? We don’t know, but we know the comments came from Royal Caribbean. Pitiful than a cruise employee uses an alias and a bogus hotmail account. Only at Royal Caribbean does this foolishness occur.