A 72-year-old man is believed to have died after falling overboard before docking in San Francisco following a Princess Cruises voyage to Mexico.
The passenger, who has not been identified, reportedly fell from the Ruby Princess ship following a five-day journey to Ensenada, Mexico, that departed November 27. When the vessel docked in San Francisco around 6:50 a.m. Monday the man was reported missing.
The cruise line confirmed that the male passenger had been travelling alone.
Following several searches of the ship and a review of CCTV footage, the disappearance was ruled as a “man overboard incident” by the cruise line “having ruled out other possibilities”.
The Ruby Princess ship, which is 195 feet high at its tallest point, departed on Monday evening for a 16-day voyage to the Hawaiian Islands.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection are investigating the incident with military aircraft seen scouring the waters for signs of the man 45 miles off the coast of Monterey, California, on Monday.
A spokesperson for Princess Cruises said in a statement: “Princess worked throughout the day with local authorities. CCTV footage has also been extensively reviewed and the ship was searched thoroughly several times without success. Having ruled out other possibilities, this is being treated as a man overboard incident.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the guest who was traveling alone.”
It’s not the first time a cruise passenger has gone overboard this year.
In August, urgent search efforts for a British passenger who reportedly fell overboard from a cruise ship near Croatia were called off after four days.
Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas was believed to be six days into a seven-day voyage around Greece and Croatia when the passenger disappeared during the early hours of the morning.
Croatian authorities confirmed on August 9 that a “young citizen of the United Kingdom”, reported to be a man, went missing from the cruise that had departed Saturday 3 August and had not been seen since.
The president of the Association of Croatian Sea Captains, Sanjin Dumanic, said at the time: “Since the man has been in the sea for over 40 hours, we are already losing hope.
“We would all like him to be found, but 40 hours is a very long time, and we are losing hope that this search will end successfully.”
