A crew member reportedly went overboard from the MSC Musica sailing from Italy last Monday evening, according to the popular Cruise Radio fan page which asserts that the unidentified man “jumped.” The MSC ship was sailing in the Mediterranean Sea after departing from the port of Civitavecchia and heading to Genoa.

Cruise Radio does not refer to any eye-witness accounts, surveillance video or anyone at MSC as a source for the proposition that the MSC employee “jumped.” There is no indication exactly when the crew member went overboard or the time it took to initiate a search.

Two days after the crew member went overboard, Cruise Radio obtained a quote from MSC Cruises saying that it allegedly “responded promptly” to the incident and its “man overboard procedure” was allegedly “immediately initiated.” MSC did not release any details regarding the overboard incident, including a description of how its employee went overboard, when it occurred, or when the cruise ship initiated its unspecified “man overboard procedure” and began its search and rescue efforts.

Cruise Radio posted an image of the Automatic Information System (AIS) data showing the path of MSC Musica when it initiated the search for its overboard employee.

The AIS image shows the MSC Musica essentially taking two u-turns and then proceeding on toward Genoa. The ship obviously did not make a lengthy or exhaustive search for the missing employee.

MSC told Cruise Radio on Wednesday that “in cooperation with the local authorities, a search and rescue operation was launched with the aid of a rescue helicopter and multiple patrol boats. At this present time, the search is still ongoing.”

It would be highly unusual if the local Italian coast guard was still conducting search efforts some 36 hours after the MSC employee went into the water, as MSC claims and as Cruise Radio reports.

Although there is no source cited for the claim that the crew member jumped, it is in fact the most likely explanation when a ship employee goes overboard. Unlike cruise passengers who typically go overboard after consuming excessive alcohol, most crew members who become missing from cruise ships decide to end their lives due to long hours, hard work, lengthy contracts away from loved ones and family members, and the absence of shipboard psychological help.

This is the 8th person overboard from a MSC cruise ship in less than the last seven months. In our view, MSC never “immediately” initiated search and rescue procedures or responded “promptly” to an overboard crew member or guest in the last eight cases.

Last week, a cruise passenger went overboard from the MSC Euribia while the cruise ship was sailing near Norway. The MSC ship initiated search efforts after a delay of approximately fifteen minutes. This is about the fastest response by MSC we have seen to a person going overboard from a MSC ship.

On March 15, 2024, a twenty-three (23) year-old passenger from Scotland, named Liam Brody Wilkie Jones, went overboard from the MSC Euribia. His family members on Facebook commented that they were frustrated by the lack of communications by the cruise line and the fact that there was no timely announcement on the ship that a person went overboard. There reportedly is absolutely no indication that the ship made any effort to promptly conduct a search and rescue. The MSC cruise ship reportedly did not alter speed or direction, deploy rescue craft, or use spotlights. The fact that it made no man overboard announcement is consistent with the lack of effort to conduct a search.

On February 4, 2024, a passenger fell off the MSC Bellissima cruise ship traveling from Taiwan to Okinawa. According to the Taiwan News, the passenger was located, pulled from the water and then rushed to a hospital, where he was reported to be in good condition following medical treatment.

On December 30, 2023, a passenger went overboard from the MSC Preziosa after the MSC cruise ship left the port of Santos heading to New Year’s Eve festivities in Rio de Janeiro.

A passenger went overboard from the MSC Armonia during a transatlantic cruise to Brazil on December 15, 2023. It does not appear that the MSC ship made any effort to conduct a search for the man in the water. AIS tracking services show that the MSC Armonia made no deviation of its course as the ship headed across the Atlantic ocean.

A crew member went overboard from the MSC Seascape in waters off of Puerto Rico on November 15, 2023. MSC delayed several hours in searching for its overboard crew member and then delayed notifying the family of the missing crew member.

There is no indication that the MSC Musica has a state-of-the-art man overboard (MOB) system which would automatically detect, via motion detection, radar and infra-red technology, when someone goes over the rails and can track the person in the water even at night. Without such a system, it is exceedingly difficult to search for a person in the water, especially at night.

In 2017, we reported that MSC Cruises announced that it had installed a state-of-the-art man overboard system on the MSC Meraviglia and was planning to deploy similar systems across its fleet of cruise ships.

MSC Cruises indicated that it developed an “intelligent video capturing and analysis system” in collaboration with “security technology experts, Bosch and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.” The Swiss-based cruise line announced that it has tested the new man overboard system on the company’s newest ship which debuted in June (2017).  MSC reported that “through over 25,000 hours of video analysis, extensive software testing and continuous algorithmic updates, the system has now reached a confirmed accuracy level of 97%.”

The MOB data and images are analyzed by two separate and independent image processing systems which significantly lower false alerts. “Once the alarm is activated in case of an overboard, an acoustic signal and light will notify the ship’s security officer, in a central security room, who can immediately retrieve and review the images and data and immediately notify the bridge to begin rescue efforts,” according to  Seatrade Cruise News. MSC Cruises announced MSC Meraviglia is “fitted with an integrated video surveillance system to optimize security monitoring on board the ship and which will allow, among other features, for the speediest intervention in the unlikely event a person or object falls overboard.”

In July 2019, a cruise guest in her 40’s went overboard from the MSC Meraviglia but was promptly rescued after the auto MOB alerted the crew that she went overboard.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that any other MSC ships have been equipped with the life saving MOB system. Twenty-seven (27) people have gone overboard from MSC cruise ships since 2006.

This is the 412th person who has gone overboard since 2000, according to Dr. Ross Klein who maintains the definitive list of cruise ship overboards.

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Image credit: MSC Musica – Bahnfrend – CC BY-SA 3.0 commons / wikimedia; MSC Musica AIS data – Cruise Radio.