Thelife- At least 10 people have gone overboard off major cruise line ships so far in 2023.
- Two of those people were rescued and survived.
The chances of you falling overboard off a cruise ship are extremely low.
But at least 10 people fell off major cruise line ships so far this year, turning fun-in-the-sun vacations into disaster situations — and only two survived the fall into the ocean.
Here's what happened to the passengers who went overboard:
Warwick Tollemache fell off a Royal Caribbean ship and wasn't found during a search
The family of 35-year-old Australian cruise passenger Warwick Tollemache told Nine News he was a "kind, beautiful, and gentle soul who was adored by everyone who knew him."
Tollemache fell into the Pacific Ocean after going overboard off Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas on April 26 at about 11 p.m. while the cruise ship was hundreds of miles off the coast of Hawaii.
The ship's crew immediately launched a search for Tollemache and the United States Coast Guard was ultimately called in to help. The Coast Guard called off its search after crew scoured the waters for two days.
Authorities didn't say how he fell in.
Ronnie Lee Peale Jr. was in his 'happy place' before he fell off a Carnival ship and was never seen again
Virginia resident Ronnie Lee Peale Jr., 35, was on a Carnival Magic cruise to celebrate his partner's birthday when he fell into the water on May 29 after officials say he leaned over a balcony railing on the vessel.
Peale Jr. went overboard as the ship was about 186 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida, and returning from the Bahamas. Carnival Cruise Line said security footage showed he "leaned over the railing of his stateroom balcony and dropped into the water" at about 4:10 am.
The Coast Guard searched over 5,171 square miles and more than 60 hours, but crews could not find Peale Jr.
"He loved the cruise life," Peale Jr.'s fiancée Jennilyn Michelle Blosser told WTKR. "Being able to drink, gamble, and socialize put him in his happy place."
A Royal Caribbean passenger beat the odds when she plunged off the 10th deck of the ship and was miraculously saved
Some who fall in are lucky to be alive.
A 42-year-old US citizen — whose name wasn't publicly revealed — fell overboard from the 10th deck of Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas vessel on June 25 at around 5:45 p.m. as the Curaçao-bound liner was more than 30 miles off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
The woman miraculously survived the fall. One witness told Business Insider that passengers lined up on their balconies and quickly banded together to try and guide the rescue boat as it scanned the water for signs of the woman.
Witnesses said cruise crew members managed to find her and brought her safely back on board in a roughly 45-minute ordeal.
The overboard woman was found to be in "good health" after the fall, the Coast Guard said. A rescue expert told Business Insider her survival was "nothing short of miraculous."
Jaylen Hill jumped off a Carnival cruise ship and was not found during a search, the company said
Carnival Elation passenger Jaylen Hill, 30, went overboard on the vessel on July 23 as the ship was on a four-day Bahamas sailing and on its way back to Jacksonville, Florida.
Hill's travel companion reported him missing after he wasn't seen all day. A Carnival spokesperson said that the cruise line determined Hill "jumped" from the ship "after an exhaustive on-board search and a review of security camera video."
The Coast Guard called off its search for Hill when he wasn't found after covering more than 1,347 square miles.
Reeta Sahani who 'could not swim' went overboard on a Royal Caribbean ship while traveling with her husband
Reeta Sahani was on Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas with her husband on July 31 in the Singapore Strait, the last day of their four-day cruise to Malaysia.
Sahani couldn't swim, her son would tell The Straits Times.
The 64-year-old mother went overboard while the cruise was on its way to Singapore.
Sahani's husband, Jakesh Sahani, woke up in the middle of the night and discovered his wife was not in their cruise cabin, the Straits Times reported. He notified the ship's officials, who, according to the news outlet, told him that his wife was seen on CCTV footage sitting on the ship's railing at about 4 a.m.
The couple's son, Apoorv Sahani, told the Straits Times that the "ship's crew thinks she jumped."
Apoorv Sahani later said in a post on X that his family was given footage from the cruise ship. "With the footage, we have unfortunately learnt that my mother has passed away," he wrote.
Kenneth Schwalbe fell off a Princess cruise ship and couldn't be found
California resident Kenneth Schwalbe, 59, was traveling on the Emerald Princess ship when he went overboard on August 11 about eight miles off the coast of Hilo, Hawaii.
According to Hawaii authorities, police received a report on the morning of August 11 that Schwalbe was last seen on board the ship at around 8:30 p.m. the day before. Authorities searched the ship but couldn't find him.
Hawaii police said that surveillance footage from a camera on the exterior of the ninth deck of the vessel showed Schwalbe "falling from the ship" at about 4:18 a.m.
The Coast Guard couldn't find Schwalbe.
Sigmund Ropich was vacationing with pals before the teenager went overboard from a Royal Caribbean ship
College student Sigmund Ropich of Texas was vacationing with his friends on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world in August, his sister Savannah Ropich told Business Insider.
On August 29 as the ship was off the coast of Cuba, the 19-year-old Sigmund went overboard.
The ship's crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation but found no sign of Sigmund. Cuban officials called off their search for Ropich after they couldn't find the teen.
Savannah Ropich said in a Facebook post last month: "Although we are continuing to celebrate my brother's life, it does not equate to compliancy with @wonderoftheseas. I am still enraged by the fact that we are celebrating my brother's life without his body."
"The mishandling of the search and constant miscommunication throughout prompts the question.. was my brother's life valued by his ticket and age?" she wrote. "If so and if not, to what extent does this company value a human life to respond with appropriate actions of urgency?"
Royal Caribbean didn't respond to Business Insider's request for a response to Savannah Ropich's criticisms.
A crew member went overboard off an AIDA Cruises ship but couldn't be found during a search
The crew member went overboard off the German cruise ship, called the AIDAperla, on October 22 as the vessel was traveling from Hamburg to Spain.
The cruise ship company said in a statement to Sky News that the captain "immediately initiated all necessary rescue measures in close coordination with the local authorities."
However, the search for the crew member wasn't successful.
Another lucky Royal Caribbean passenger was rescued after going overboard
A passenger traveling on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas vessel went overboard on October 29 after the ship departed Barcelona and was saved.
"The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and began searching for the guest. Thankfully, the guest was successfully recovered and was brought on board," the cruise line told Business Insider.
A person who said they were aboard the vessel at the time posted on social media that they could see spotlights and rescue boats from their balcony during the nighttime search.
A Carnival cruise passenger was seen on surveillance footage jumping off the ship
Tyler Barnett, a 28-year-old father of two from Houma, Louisiana was on a week-long cruise with his younger sister and their uncle when he went missing in the middle of the night.
Barnett was last seen aboard the Carnival Glory — which was heading to the Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico — around 11:40 p.m. on November 12, the day of the ship's departure from New Orleans, his mother, Elisha Reid, told Business Insider.
For over 24 hours, Carnival crews searched the ship and the Coast Guard scoured a 200-mile section of the Gulf of Mexico looking for signs of Barnett.
But, on November 14, Carnival said it had finally found footage of Barnett that showed him climbing up onto a lifeboat and jumping off the ship around 1:40 a.m. on November 13, the company told Business Insider in an email.
The cruise line at first told Barnett's sister, who was also on the ship, that there was no surveillance footage of her brother that night, Reid said.
Reid said she found out her son was missing from a cousin, not the cruise company.
"I have my moments where I break, but I'm keeping the faith," she told Business Insider as the search continued. "I'm keeping the faith. I just want him home."
Despite these cases, overboard incidents are very rare, according to a cruise line trade association
According to a report from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), there were 212 overboard incidents from 2009 to 2019, and only 48 — or 28.2% — of those who fell overboard were successfully rescued.
"Even one incident is one too many," CLIA told Business Insider, explaining, "The vast majority of cases are either reckless behavior or some form of intentional act. People don't just inadvertently fall over the side of a ship."
According to CLIA, cruise lines have maintained an exceptional safety record and cruising is one of the safest forms of travel.
From 2009 to 2019, the number of "operational incidents" declined by 41% and the rate of "man overboard incidents" declined by nearly 35%, while the industry's total capacity grew by 68%, CLIA said.