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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.

Content Warning: This article contains references to child sexual abuse, animal abuse and sexual assault of minors.

Two crew members were arrested last Sunday at PortMiami for possession of child pornography, bringing the total number of crew members arrested in South Florida in just the last five months to twelve. Miami-Dade police arrested the cruise ship employees last weekend “after cabin searches turned up both child sexual abuse material and bestiality videos on both of their cellphones,” according to Miami Local 10 News.

The local news station reports that U.S. Customs and Border (CBP) Protection agents searched the cabins of Igedeboy Mardika (top photograph), a 28-year-old Indonesian national, and Sreerag Vazhayil (bottom photograph), a 32-year-old Indian national, at PortMiami on Sunday. CBP agents “discovered videos of both boys and girls being raped and sexually abused by both men and women; the victims were as young as preschool-aged.”

Vazhayil possessed a “video of a man having sex with a horse, while Mardika had three videos of women having sex with a horse, a dog and a pig,” according to Miami-Dade Police. Mardika also distributed a child sexual abuse video, police said, although the details of this charge were not disclosed.

These two crew members are being criminally charged by prosecutors in the state criminal justice system in this state. Florida is the only state in the U.S. with statutes empowering state law enforcement and state prosecutors to investigate, arrest and prosecute individuals on cruise ships which depart from and return to Florida.

Mardika faces 16 felony charges related to the possession and promotion of child sexual abuse material, along with three counts of possessing bestiality videos.

Vazhayil faces seven felony charges related to the possession of child sexual abuse material as well as one charge of possessing a video depicting sexual conduct with animals.

We have reported on ten other crew members working on cruise ships calling on Miami and Fort Lauderdale who have been arrested on child pornograpy charges since February of this year:

2 Carnival Crew Members:

Iputuagus Karnawan, a/k/a Putu Karnawan (age 28), reportedly worked for Carnival Cruise line in the galley as a cook on the Carnival Conquest. Imadewisma Dana (also age 28), also reportedly worked a cook on the Carnival Conquest. These two Carnival employees were arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials after they were apprehended last week at PortMiami with child pornography on their phones.

Imadewisma Dana (left), Iputuagus Karnawan (upper right), Carnival Conquest (right).

3 Royal Caribbean Crew Members:

Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara, age 32,(Royal Caribbean assistant waiter on the Wonder of the Seas), Komang Parianta, age 33, (Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas), and Zin Naing Htun, age 36, (Royal Caribbean, ship unknown) were all arrested on charges of possessing child pornography. Brahmantara allegedly had two videos on his phone of girls as young as 5 years old being sexually assaulted by men and a video of a female “engaging in sexual intercourse with a horse.”

Zin Naing Htun (left), Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara (top right), and Komang Parianta (bottom right).

3 Disney Crew Members;

Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44, (Disney Dream), Alvin Gonzalez, age 49, (Disney Dream),  Amiel Trazo, age 28, (Disney Dream) were arrested for possession of child pornography on the same Disney ship. U.S. CBP agents found pornographic images of children as young as age 9 on Neri’s cell phones, age 8 on Gonzalez’s phone, and age 6 on Trazo’s device.

Disney Dream (upper left), Alvin Gonzalez (upper right), Tirso Anthonu Neri (lower left), and Amiel Trazo (lower right).

1 Celebrity Crew Member:

Dennis Ofrancia De Leon, age 44, (Celebrity Reflection). Homeland Security agents found “multiple videos/photographs” depicting child sexual abuse material. The criminal court file indicated that the agents found videos “showing boys and girls being raped or otherwise sexually abused . . .”

Dennis Ofrancia De Leon (left), Celebrity Reflection (right)

1 HAL Crew Member:

Jamaal Wade, age 28, (photo below) employed by RWS Global as a dancer / performer on a Holland America Line cruise ship). He was arrested with child sexual abuse materials “involving minors as young as two years old engaged in sexual acts with adults,” and allegedly sexually abused an eleven year-old boy while on a tour for a performance group before he worked on a cruise ship.

So far, three crew members working for Royal Caribbean, three ship employees on the Disney Dream, two crew member working for Carnival, one crew member working for Holland America Line and one crew member working for Celebrity were arrested on child pornography charges.

Where Did This Latest Crew Members Work?

The question arises who employed the last two crew members and on which cruise ship did they work?

Crackdown On Child Pornography By U.S. and Florida Law Enforcement

There appears that there is an effort by both state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute people who possess and transport child pornography on cruise ships. It is likely that once law enforcement seizes a crew member’s iPhone and/or computer, they obtain evidence such as social media sites and internet transmissions which share child pornography and/or bestiality images implicating a wide number of ship employees.

Are Cruise Employers Doing Anything to Address the Illegal Conduct?

There remains the fundamental issue whether cruise employers are taking any steps to prohibit child pornography on their ships.

According to the Filipino publication Inquirer: “The Migrant Workers Office (MWO) of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC, is working with agencies deploying Filipino seafarers to cruise ships to address the use of child pornography among cruise ship workers. (“At least seven Filipino cruise ship workers have been arrested and detained in Florida for possession and transportation of child pornography within the past six months,” the MWO reported).

“US federal and state laws criminalize the production or promotion of child pornography. Individuals caught possessing, viewing, transporting and distributing child pornography will be prosecuted and penalized.”

The MWO urged the manning (employment) agencies to advise “the seafarers to desist from downloading, possessing, viewing, transporting, distributing and selling child pornography, as well as subscribing to child pornography sites.” But there is no indication that cruise lines are training their ship employees that child pornography is illegal on their cruise ships and there will be consequences if ship employees engage in such conduct.

The question also arises whether child pornography is even illegal in some of the countries where cruise lines recruit their employees such as the Philippines? In 2009, following advocacy by UNICEF and others, child sexual abuse materials were made illegal in the Philippines for the first time. But more needs to be done. “The legal age of sexual consent in the Philippines is still just 12 years old,” according to: UNICEF.

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Image Credit: VAZHAYIL, SREERAG – Miami-Dade-County-Sexual-Predators; MARDIKA, IGEDEBOY – Miami-Dade-County-Sexual-Predators; Carnival Conquest –  NormanEinstein; Celebrity Reflection – Master0Garfield commons/wikimedia; Dennis De Leon; Local 10 News (WPLG); Disney Dream – Ajmexico from Melbourne, USA – CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia

Early yesterday morning, a cruise passenger went overboard from the MSC Euribia while the cruise ship was sailing in the Sognefjord fjord between Lavik and Oppedal in Norway.

The Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende reports that a passenger “in his late 50’s,” who was traveling with his wife, went overboard around 2:00 a.m. early Thursday morning. The ship sounded an alarm around 2:15 a.m. There are no reported details currently available regarding how or why the person went overboard.

A rescue center in Southern Norway thereafter deployed a rescue helicopter, air ambulance, and several rescue vessels. A rescue boat was also deployed from the MSC ship.

The passenger’s body was located at around 3:00 a.m. and and recovered by a rescue vessel and then taken on board a rescue helicopter and flown to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen where he was pronounced dead.

The local police in Norway will conduct an investigation and will question the crew and obtain video surveillance from the cruise ship.

The newspaper quotes a local police officer as stating: “This is coded as a suspicious death. We have several hypotheses. It could be an accident, a criminal act, or an intentional act.”

This is the 411th person who has gone overboard since 2000, according to Dr. Ross Klein who maintains the definitive list of cruise ship overboards.

This is also the 7th person who has gone overboard from MSC cruise ships in less than the last seven months.

Two passengers, including this most recent overboard, died after going into the water, one survived and recovered, and three guests and one crew member disappeared in the water.

A twenty-three (23) year-old passenger from Scotland, named Liam Brody Wilkie Jones, went overboard from the MSC Euribia on March 15, 2024.

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.

A crew member went overboard from the MSC Seascape in waters off of Puerto Rico on November 15, 2023.

Maritime law requires ship owners to immediately take steps to search and rescue passengers (or crew members) as soon as they realize that someone has gone overboard. As a practical matter, this typically involves turning the ship around to the area where the person left the ship. The cruise fan page Cruise Hive reported on this overboard and states that AIS tracking data shows the MSC ship “turning around” shortly after 2:00 a.m.

The crew will often deploy rescue lifecraft and utilize spotlights to search for the overboard person. The captain usually makes announcements that the ship is involved in looking for an overboard guest.

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June 8, 2024:

The New York Post covered the incident.

Image credit: MSC Euribia – Von ND44 – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia.

Federal agents arrested a man with child sexual abuse material on his phone as he disembarked a Disney cruise ship at Port Everglades this past weekend, according to Local 10 News.

Dakota Anthony Ferguson, 22, of Columbus, Ohio, appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Monday on charges of transportation and possession of child pornography. Authorities arrested him after a border search of his cellphone after the Disney Magic returned to port on Saturday following a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and Castaway Cay (Disney’s “private island” in the Bahamas).

Dakota Anthony Ferguson, recent arrest – Port Everglades.

Local 10 News reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials conducted a secondary examination on Ferguson and found “numerous videos of child sexual abuse material on his cellphone, the majority of which depicted prepubescent girls being raped or otherwise sexually abused.”

Federal authorities interviewed Ferguson who waived his Miranda rights and admitted he began looking at child sexual abuse material several years ago. He viewed and shared child pornography using the Telegram messaging app and Twitter social media outlet. The criminal complaint alleged that he purchased videos depicting victims as young as 2.

A copy of the complaint filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale is here.

According to Local 19 News, Ferguson’s Ohio indictment shows that he’s accused of engaging in “sexual conduct” with a victim between the ages of 13 and 15 in 2021, when he was 19. Records show he has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Ohio criminal court records obtained by the news outlet show that Ferguson was charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor after being arrested by the Columbus Police Department. Ferguson was indicted in that case in September 2022, according to Local News 10. He was arrested in December of 2022 in Ohio on charges of multiple counts of unlawful sexual conduct of a minor.

Dakota Anthony Ferguson, December 4, 2022 arrest – Ohio.

Local 10 News has contacted Disney Cruise Line inquiring about its background check procedures for passengers.

There is currently a trend of crew members being arrested in the last five months on charges of possessing child pornography. Three Disney crew members employed on the Disney Dream have been arrested in the last five months.

Disney Dream – upper left, Alvin Gonzalez – upper right, Tirso Anthonu Neri – lower left, and Amiel Trazo – lower right.

Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44, was identified in court records as a crew member on the Disney Dream cruise ship based in Port Everglades. Neri was charged with violating 18 USC 2252(a)(i) (transportation of child pornography) and 2252(a)(4)(B) (possession of child pornography) after agents for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations found pornographic images of children as young as age nine on his cell phones.

Disney ship employee Alvin Gonzalez, age 49, was also arrested on the Disney Dream in early February of this year for possession of a video of a boy, believed to be as young as 8, and a girl, estimated to be as young as 12, having intercourse with each other. Amiel Trazo, another Disney crew member, age 28, was arrested in late February on charges of possessing numerous materials depicting graphic child sexual abuse “with children between the approximate ages of 6 and 14.”

There have been at least 10 crew members arrested in South Florida, including the three Disney crew members above, on charges of possession of child pornograhy in the last five months. This total includes four ship employees on Royal Caribbean-owned ships.

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June 6, 2024 Update:

Image Credit: Disney Magic CC 2.0 commons / wikimedia, Disney Dream – ajmexico CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia; TIRSO ANTHONY NERI – tricountybests, Dakota Anthony Ferguson – Local News 10 and Mugshot Zone.

Two crew members, employed by unidentified cruise lines, are the latest cruise ship employees arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials after they were apprehended yesterday at PortMiami with child pornography on their phones, according to local Miami NBC News Station 6.

Iputuagus Karnawan (below – bottom) and Imadewisma Dana (below – top), both age 28, were arrested at PortMiami on Monday.

Both were accused of possessing numerous images “showing sexual performance by a child.”

According to NBC-6, the arrest reports indicate that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer conducted “routine cabin searches” and located videos of “child abuse material on their cellphones.” The two men were then arrested by Miami-Dade Police. (Florida has a statute authorizing local police departments to investigate and state prosecutors to prosecute crimes on cruise ships which depart and return to this state.)

NBC-6 reported that the state court criminal judge set the bond for both men at $2,500 on each count, resulting in a total bond amount of $12,500 for Dana and $10,000 for Karnawan.

But Dana and Karnawan, who are reportedly both from Indonesia, were being kept behind bars on an immigration hold.

In addition to these two crew members, eight other cruise ship employees have been arrested for possessing child sexual abuse materials since February: Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara, age 32 (Royal Caribbean assistant waiter on the Wonder of the Seas), Komang Parianta, age 33, (Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas), Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44 (Disney Dream), Alvin Gonzalez, age 49 (Disney Dream),  Amiel Trazo, age 28 (Disney Dream), Jamaal Wade, age 28 (employed by RWS Global as a dancer / performer on a Holland America Line cruise ship), and Dennis Ofrancia De Leon, age 44 (Celebrity Reflection). Some of these crew members possessed child pornography of children as young as two to five years of age.

Top left to bottom right: Zin Naing Htun (Royal Caribbean), Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara (Royal Caribbean), Amiel Trazo (Disney), Anthony Gonzalez (Disney), Dennis Ofrancia De Leon (Celebrity), Komang Parianta (Royal Caribbean), Tirso Anthony Neri (Disney), and Jamaal Wade (RWS Global on a HAL ship).

It seems rather far-fetched to believe that these men were subject to “routine” cabin searches which turned up child pornography on their personal phones. My thought is that some of them probably were sharing child abuse images. This probably led to law enforcement gathering their emails or social media pages and then identifying additional perverts on ships which called on U.S. ports here in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.

The question that arises is which cruise ships did these men work on? So far, in the last five months, the arrested crew members worked on cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean (4), Disney (3), and Carnival Corporation (HAL) (1).

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June 5, 2024 Update:

June 6, 2024 Update:

Image credit: Iputuagus Karnawan and Imadewisma Dana – Miami Dade County Mugshot Zone and Miami Dade Correction via NBC-6.

A grand jury recently indicted a 27 year-old resident of Pennsylvania for strangling and beating a woman, who appears to be his girlfriend, during a cruise aboard a cruise ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) to the Caribbean a year and a half ago. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Quintin Owens with three felonies earlier this week: (1) “assault of an intimate or dating partner by strangling,” (2) assault by striking, beating, or wounding,” and (3) interstate domestic violence. The charges were filed in Federal Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on May 21, 2024. The first two felony crimes are specified in 18 United States Code (U.S.C.) 113 (a) and the domestic violence charge is based on the alleged violation of 18 U.S.C. 2261 (a). The DOJ issued a press release summarizing the allegations.

The violent assault and battery is alleged to have occurred on the Norwegian Getaway which sailed from Port Canaveral on October 8, 2022 on a one week cruise to the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The indictment alleges that on October 11, 2022, Owens allegedly assaulted and battered his “intimate and dating partner” by “strangling her in a choke hold” on the high seas near St. Thomas, USVI. Owens pled not guilty to the charges and posted a $20,000 bond.

Owens and the victim both reside in the Western District of Pennsylvania in a town north of Pittsburg.

Owens faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.

There is no information disclosed regarding the exact circumstances surrounding the violent attack which is alleged to have occured on the NCL cruise ship or whether the victim received medical treatment on the ship. It is also not clear why it took over 17 months for the indictment.

There have been a number of “domestic disturbances” during cruises over the years. In October 2018, a cruise passenger assaulted his girlfriend on an unidentified cruise ship. He choked her until she passed out during a cruise to the Bahamas. He was indicted under the same federal criminal statute involved in this case, 18 U.S.C. 113 (a).

Passenger Indicted for Strangling Girlfriend During Cruise to the Bahamas

A cruise passenger on the Carnival Fantasy was indicted earlier in 2018 after she reportedly pulled a steak knife and cut her boyfriend during an altercation. 

In August 2018, a 53 year-old man was arrested for murdering his girlfriend on the Carnival Elation.

A couple of months ago, a Carnival passenger was viciously beaten and cut in the face with a bar glass and required nineteen stiches. The crime took place on the Carnival Magic where a cruise guest, who became irate when asked to be quit in a theater on the ship, “smashed his cocktail glass into a man’s face and beat him during a theater show.”

Carnival Cruise Passenger Viciously Beaten and Cut in the Face With Bar Glass

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Image credit: Norwegian Getaway – kees torn – CC BY-SA 2.0 commons / wikimedia.

A passenger went overboard from the Icon of the Seas this weekend after the Royal Caribbean cruise ship was heading toward Roatan, Honduras from Miami at the beginning of a 7 day Caribbean cruise. The popular cruise fan site, Cruise Hive, reported that a man went overboard when the Icon of the Seas was approximately 300 miles from Miami.

There are conflicting conclusions regarding how the passenger left the cruise ship and ended up in the water. Cruise Hive claims, in the headline of the article, that the passenger allegedly “jumped” although the text refers to tweets from passengers who stated that the passenger “jumped/fell” overboard or simply “went overboard.” The New York Post also reported that the man “jumped” and cited unnamed “officials” as the source of the conclusion. The Independent newspaper also stated that the passenger “reportedly jumped” according to the New York Post, but again cited no eye witnesses or closed circuit cameras as sources of the conclusion. The U.K.’s Daily Mail also reported that the man “jumped,” citing only Cruise Hive as the source of the information.

The initial tweets from Twitter (X) were to the effect that the passenger was rescued after approximately two hours. AIS tracking shows the cruise ship turned around and eventually returned to its earlier location. Yesterday morning, I initially reported that the man went overboard and was successfully rescued. Today, I awoke to learn the sad news that the man later died, apparently succumbing to his injuries from the fall from the 20 story ship. The details of exactly how and why the man went overboard are not known. We do not know whether he sustained serious injuries which led directly to his death or whether the two hour delay in the rescue also led to his demise.

The body of the passenger was apparently covered with a blanket when the rescue craft used in the rescue returned to the cruise ship, as photos posted on Threads by noted cruise photographer Alfredo Zayas Cotto.

The Icon of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s latest giant cruise ship which was introduced to much ballyhoo earlier this year. According to the Exploreist, the monster ship “boasts a 17,000-square-foot water park with six waterslides and seven pools — including the 40,000-gallon Royal Bay, which is the largest pool at sea — and Absolute Zero, the largest ice skating rink at sea.” To our knowledge the Icon of the Seas is not equipped with a state-of-the-art automatic man overboard system which may have led to a rescue faster than two hours.

According to cruise expert Dr. Ross Klein, who maintains the definitive list of people going overboard and has testified before the U.S. Congress several times regarding cruise ship overboards, this was the 410th person to go overboard from a cruise ship (or ferry) in the last 24 years.

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May 28, 2024 Update:

The New York Post: Passenger Describes ‘Dystopian’ Scene on World’s Biggest Cruise Ship.

Image Credit: Icon of the Seas – Royal Caribbean via MarineLink; AIS tracking – CruiseMapper; Royal Caribbean rescue craft – Alfredo Zayas Cotto via Daily Mail.

Three French men who boarded the MSC Seaside last week allegedly gang-raped a 19-year-old Italian student who was on the cruise as part of a school trip, according to several newspapers which reported the crime.

Last Friday, the men boarded the MSC cruise ship vessel in Marseilles, one of the six ports of calls on the MSC cruise ship’s itinerary, several days after the young woman began her cruise in Civitavecchia, near Rome.

She spent several days on the ship with her classmates before her three attackers boarded the ship. “Hours after they boarded the vessel, the three perpetrators are said to have lured the young passenger into their cabin before forcing themselves upon her in the locked room.”

The rape reportedly occurred while the MSC ship was sailing back to Italy (Genoa). The Genoa border police conducted the investigation, interviewed the victim and obtained security camera footage from the ship. The police arrested the three men.

This rape on a MSC ship allegedly occurred two months after a 27 year-old crew member on the MSC Fantasia was accused of raping a 33 year-old passenger from the U.K.

We recently reported on the sexual assault statistics maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding crimes on cruise ships sailing from and returning to U.S. ports. Read: DOT First Quarter Cruise-Crime Statistics: Carnival Cruise Line Ships Remain the Most Violent Ships at Sea.

There were 32 sexual assaults / rapes reported to the DOT on cruise ships calling on U.S. ports for the first three months of this year. There was a total of 131 sexual assaults on cruise ships in 2023 from U.S. ports.

The DOT data does not include sexual assaults on cruise ships sailing itineraries in and around Europe, Africa, Asia or Australia.

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May 24, 2024 Update:

The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported that another Italian high school girl reported that the “gang” of young men tried to rape her earlier that evening but she managed to escape.

Image credit: MSC Seaside (sailing from Miami) Yanjipy – CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) cruise crime statistics, mandated by the 2010 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act, continue to show that Carnival Cruise Line remains by far the most likely cruise line to experience physical and sexual violence at sea.

Assaults With Serious Bodily Injury

Carnival Cruise Line reported eight (8) assaults with serious bodily injury in the first three month of this year. No other cruise line reported a single act of violence resulting in serious injuries in the first quarter of this year. Last year (2023), there were a total or twenty-two (22) violent physical assaults leading to serious injury throughout the cruise industry. Carnival Cruise Line had the majority (14) of such incidents.

Sexual Violence

The first quarter DOT cruise crime data also reveals that Carnival Cruise Line remains the cruise brand with the most sexual violence at sea. Carnival Cruise line reported that there were nine (9) instances of sexual assault / rape on its twenty-seven ships, with Royal Caribbean (with the same number of ships but a higher number of passengers) having eight (8) such crimes.

Overall, all cruise lines reported a total of thirty-two (32) sexual assaults / rapes for the first quarter of 2024. The DOT data for the fourth quarter of last year (2023) reveals that fleet-wide for all cruise lines there were thirty-three (33) sexual assaults / rapes, bringing the total annual number of sexual assaults / rapes on cruise ships for 2023 to one hundred and thirty-one (131) such alleged crimes. There were eighty-nine (89) sexual assaults reported by cruise lines in all of 2022. Based on first quarter data, the projected annual number of sexual violence incidents for 2024 is 128 sexual assaults / rapes.

The Miami New Times (Naomi Feinstein) reported on the cruise crime increase in 2023 earlier this year. “A report from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) states that 131 alleged incidents of sexual assault and rape were reported on cruise ships last year – a marked increase beyond the 2022 total of 87 and the pre-pandemic total of 101 in 2019.”

The number of alleged sexual crimes reported on Carnival Cruise Line ships during the last quarter is the same amount of such alleged crimes (9) during the last three months of 2023. Last year Carnival Cruise Line had a total of forty-five (45) sexual assaults / rapes. Considering it has around 115,000 passengers and crew members onboard its fleet on an average day, this turns out to be a per capita rate (per 100,000) of over 41. Carnival Cruise Line’s projected annualized sexual crimes for this year, again based on the first quarter numbers, turns out to be 38 per 100,000, which is equal to or higher than twenty states in the U.S. (Royal Caribbean, on the other hand, has closer to 150,000 passengers and crew members on the same number of ships – 27 – at any given time).

Why Does Carnival Cruise Line Have The Highest Number of Sexual Assaults and Physical Assaults Leading to Serious Bodily Injury?

There is a direct correlation between excessive alcohol served on Carnival’s “fun ships” and violence, in general, and sexual violence against women, in particular. Bartenders and waiters on Carnival cruise ships are not paid a salary by Carnival but depend on tips and gratuities. The bartenders are motivated to sell excessive amounts of alcohol in order to earn a living. There is no independent police force on these increasingly huge cruise ships. Girls and young women are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse in what is often a lawless environment.

This is a cruise line which has made a conscious decision not to warn its guests of the danger of violence and sexual violence during cruises on its “fun ships.” Consider: Carnival Cruise Passenger Viciously Beaten and Cut in the Face With Bar Glass.

The reality of a “typical cruise,” on a Carnival ship from Miami to the Bahamas, for example, involves cruising on a ship in the most dangerous fleet at sea to one of the most dangerous cruise destination in the world. Consider: Two Guests From the Carnival Elation Report Being Drugged and Raped During Excursion in the Bahamas, cruise lines have an absolute duty to warn its passengers of crime dangers not only on its ships but in the ports of call where they visit. This is true whether the cruise guests are on an excursion promoted and sold by the cruise line or an independant excursion unrelated to the cruise line. Carlisle v. Ulysses Line Ltd., S.A.,475 So. 2d 248, 251 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1985), Chaparro v. Carnival, 693 F.3d 1333 (11th Cir. 2012).

“Fight Ships” Not “Fun Ships?”

You only have to watch the numerous YouTube videos of bar brawls on Carnival ships to realize that there’s a good reason why many people call Carnival ships the “fight ships” rather than the “fun ships.” The DOT cruise crime data bears this out.

Carnival Refuses to Acknowledge Its High Crimes Rates

Carnival Cruise Line has steadfastly refused to acknowledge the high crime rates on its cruise ships. Its corporate communication department consistently tries to minimize the danger to the traveling public. Earlier this year, Chris Chiames, chief communications officer for Carnival Cruise Line, tried to minimize Carnival’s numerous crimes alleged on its ships, telling the Washington Post that Carnival (which carried 5.5 million guests last year) allegedly operated “a much bigger fleet, more guests and more U.S. operations than any of our competitors.”

Carnival’s claims that its fleet is allegedly larger and it carries more guests is false and misleading. In fact, Carnival Cruise Line also has the same number of cruise ships as Royal Caribbean (each own 27 ships). But Royal Caribbean has significantly larger cruise ships with greater capacity and carries more passengers than Carnival at any given time. Royal Caribbean carries a maximum of over 100,000 passengers whereas Carnival Cruise Line has a maximum of around 85,000 passengers.

Carnival Cruise Line also has a tradition of refusing to accept accountability and misrepresenting information which it finds to be detrimental to its reputation and business interests. For example, when Carnival Corporation pled guilty to the second revocation of its criminal probation for widespread pollution in January of 2022, the Department of Justice stated that the cruise line has “a culture that seeks to minimize or avoid information that is negative, uncomfortable, or threatening to the company, including to top leadership.” This is an integral part of the problem with the sexual and violent crimes alleged to be committed on cruise ships it operates. A recidivist corporate cruise felon like Carnival, with its culture of cover ups, lies and misinformation, will inevitably try to cover-up the crimes, blame the victims and lie to the public.

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Image credit: Carnival Liberty leaving Miami – Jim Walker; Carnival Magic in Norfolk, VA- Jim Walker.

Two additional crew members on cruise ships were arrested in South Florida in the last week on charges of child pornography, bringing the total of cruise ship employees apprehended for possessing child abuse materials to a total of at least eight in a period of a little over three months.

Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara

Police officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) arrested Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara (photo above), a 32 year-old man recently identified as a Royal Caribbean crew member recently employed as an assistant waiter on the Wonder of the Seas, on Sunday on charges of possessing child pornography and a bestiality video, according to Local News-10. This followed the arrest just the day before involving a crew member, Komang Parianta, also recently identified as working for Royal Caribbean on the Icon of the Seas, on charges of possessing child pornography. Parianta was accused of possessing child sexual abuse videos including a “girl around five years old” being sexually abused by a man as well as a “girl between 12 to 13 years old” also being abused.

Zin Naing Htun

These last two arrests followed the arrest of a Royal Caribbean ship employee, Zin Naing Htun, 36 (photo immediately above), of Myanmar, around a week ago. Crew member Htun was charged with two counts of possession of child pornography. One video depicted a child between the ages of 10 and 12 acting in a “sexual manner,” and a second depicted a child between 12 and 14 years old removing her clothes, according to a local NBC news station.

According to a MDPD arrest report, Indonesian Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara was detained on Sunday after law enforcement conducted a cabin search. The officers found two videos on his phone of girls as young as 5 years old being sexually assaulted by men and a video of a female “engaging in sexual intercourse with a horse.”

As of Tuesday, Brahmantara was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on an immigration hold. Jail records show Brahamantara is facing three counts of possession of videos depicting a sexual performance by a child and possession of a video depicting sexual activities involving animals.

Brahmantara’s LinkedIn and Facebook pages indicate that he was a former crew member who worked for Marella Cruises beginning in 2016. He recently was employed by Royal Caribbean.

In addition to these crew members, six other cruise ship employees have been arrested for possessing child sexual abuse materials since February: Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44 (Disney Dream), Alvin Gonzalez, age 49 (Disney Dream),  Amiel Trazo, age 28 (Disney Dream), Jamaal Wade, age 28 (employed by RWS Global as a dancer / performer on a Holland America Line cruise ship), and Dennis Ofrancia De Leon, age 44 (Celebrity Reflection). Some of these crew members possessed child pornography of children as young as two to five years of age.

Top left to bottom right: Zin Naing Htun (Royal Caribbean), Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara (Royal Caribbean), Amiel Trazo (Disney), Anthony Gonzalez (Disney), Dennis Ofrancia De Leon (Celebrity), Komang Parianta (Royal Caribbean), Tirso Anthony Neri (Disney), and Jamaal Wade (RWS Global on a HAL ship).

There remains substantial questions whether cruise lines perform adequate pre-employment investigations into the backgrounds of prospective employees. This spate of child perverts hired by the cruise lines makes that clear. Most of these deviant crew members above come from countries like Indonesia and the Philippines which have no sexual predator database nor computerized sources of data where employers can search for relevant background information based on a search of their driver’s license or social security number.

Cruise lines are currently aggressively recruiting new employees. Royal Caribbean, in particular, is hiring 10,000 workers in 2024 to keep up with surging demand in cruise travel, according to a report from Reuters. There appears to be little hesitation by cruise lines in bringing new crew members into the cruise industry which is trending toward building larger and larger ships which require thousands of new hires. Whether cruise lines continue to hire crew members with a propensity to engage in possessing and transporting child pornography and other criminal behavior during their long contracts (6-10 month) at sea seems probable.

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May 21, 2024 Update:

From Inquirer:

“The Migrant Workers Office (MWO) of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC, is working with agencies deploying Filipino seafarers to cruise ships to address the use of child pornography among cruise ship workers.

At least seven Filipino cruise ship workers have been arrested and detained in Florida for possession and transportation of child pornography within the past six months, the MWO reported.

‘US federal and state laws criminalize the production or promotion of child pornography. Individuals caught possessing, viewing, transporting and distributing child pornography will be prosecuted and penalized.”

He urged the manning agencies to advise the seafarers to desist from downloading, possessing, viewing, transporting, distributing and selling child pornography, as well as subscribing to child pornography sites.”

May 22, 2024 Update:

The question arises: Is child pornography illegal in the Philippines? Kind of. In 2009, following advocacy by UNICEF and others, child sexual abuse materials were made illegal in the Philippines for the first time. But more needs to be done. “The legal age of sexual consent in the Philippines is still just 12 years old,” according to: UNICEF.

Image credit: Cover image (top) -Komang Parianta and Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara; Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara – mug shot zone; Zin Naing Htun – NBC news station.