The 19 Man Overboard Incidents in 2024 – Here’s the Breakdown by Cruise Line

1. February 4, 2024

• Cruise Ship: MSC Bellissima
• Location: Port Yokohama, Japan
• Summary: A passenger fell overboard during the night but was rescued alive after an extensive search by the ship’s crew.
• Outcome: Rescued alive

2. February 14, 2024

• Cruise Ship: MSC World Europa
• Location: Valletta, Malta
• Summary: A 72-year-old male American tourist fell overboard at 5 PM while the ship was docked. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
• Outcome: Body recovered

3. March 22, 2024

• Cruise Ship: MSC Euribia
• Location: En route to Hamburg, Germany
• Summary: A 23-year-old male passenger reportedly went overboard on March 17. The disappearance was confirmed after five days of searching.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

4. April 4, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Liberty of the Seas
• Location: 57 miles from Great Inagua Island
• Summary: A 20-year-old male passenger reportedly went overboard around 3:30 AM. Reports suggest he may have been intoxicated at the time.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

5. April 14, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Rotterdam
• Location: 20 miles south of Marathon
• Summary: A crew member reportedly went overboard at 9:45 PM. There was a delay of over 13 hours in notifying the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

7. May 5, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Pacific Adventure
• Location: Just outside Sydney Harbour, Australia
• Summary: A 50-year-old male passenger went overboard after reportedly losing a significant amount of money in the ship’s casino. The body was found after an extensive search.
• Outcome: Body recovered

9. June 7, 2024

• Cruise Ship: MSC Euribia
• Location: Sognefjord, the largest fjord in Norway
• Summary: A passenger in their 50s went overboard around 2:00 AM. The body was later recovered.
• Outcome: Body recovered

10. June 13, 2024

• Cruise Ship: MSC Musica
• Location:  Between Civitavecchia and headed to Genoa
• Summary: A crew member reportedly went overboard. This marked the eighth such incident involving MSC Cruises in seven months.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

11. August 9, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Carnival Dream
• Location: 82 nautical miles off the coast of northeast Rio Lagartos, Mexico
• Summary: A female crew member reportedly went overboard at approximately 2:30 AM. Search efforts were started, but details aren’t available.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

12. August 9, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Explorer of the Seas
• Location: Adriatic Sea, off Croatia’s coast
• Summary: A young male passenger reportedly went overboard around 3:40 AM. Despite immediate search efforts by the crew and Croatian authorities, he was not found.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

13. August 9, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Norwegian Spirit
• Location: Off the coast of Taiwan
• Summary: A 30-year-old male passenger went overboard and was caught on camera as a family was taking a photo by the ship railing. The body was recovered.
• Outcome: Body recovered

15. October 23, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Allure of the Seas
• Location: 17 miles from Nassau, Bahamas
• Summary: A 66-year-old female passenger reportedly went overboard during a Taylor Swift-themed cruise. Details about the circumstances remain limited.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

16. December 2, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Ruby Princess
• Location: Approximately 45 miles off the coast of Monterey, California
• Summary: A 72-year-old male passenger was reported missing as the ship approached San Francisco after a 5-day round trip to Ensenada, Mexico. The passenger was not found despite extensive searches and reviews of CCTV footage.
• Outcome: Missing at sea

17. December 17, 2024

• Cruise Ship: Vision of the Seas
• Location: Atlantic Ocean, east of the Bahamas
• Summary: A 23-year-old male crew member from Mauritius went overboard during the final days of a 12-night Southern Caribbean cruise. The incident triggered a “Code OSCAR” emergency response, and the U.S. Coast Guard later took over the search.
• Outcome: After an extensive search, the crew member remains missing, and the operation transitioned from rescue to recovery.

Man Overboards are Rare

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) shared with Cruise Radio, “From 2009 to 2019, the number of operational incidents declined by 41%, and the rate of man overboard incidents decreased by nearly 35%.”

This decline occurred during a period when the cruise industry’s total capacity grew by 68%, highlighting the industry’s commitment to safety even as it expanded.

CLIA emphasized, “Tragic accidents are exceedingly rare based on data tracked by CLIA. Even one incident is one too many—and railings are specifically designed to prevent accidents. It is extremely rare for someone to go overboard or for accidents to occur from balconies. On average, the incident rate over the 11-year period from 2009 to 2019 is 0.0004.”

While some may refer to such tragedies as “falls,” the safety measures in place make accidental falls nearly impossible. Sadly, the vast majority of overboard cases are linked to reckless behavior or intentional acts, rather than accidents.

Legal Accountability in Man Overboard Cases

It’s easy to point fingers in man-overboard cases, but who is to blame?

Jim Walker, a maritime lawyer who runs the Cruise Law News blog, offered insight into the legal challenges surrounding overboard incidents. “Cruise lines face little or no legal consequence when a passenger or crew member goes overboard and is lost at sea,” Walker explained.

A significant obstacle to holding cruise lines accountable lies in the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), a U.S. law that limits recoverable damages in such cases.

Walker elaborated: “The Death on the High Seas Act does not provide a basis to recover any damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, bereavement, or other emotional losses when a death occurs during a cruise.”

He continued, “The only damages permitted under DOSHA are ‘pecuniary’ (i.e., financial) damages such as lost wages and burial and funeral expenses. So, if the decedent is retired, a child, or not a wage earner, the recovery is limited to the cost of the burial and funeral. If the body is not found (hence no burial), there are no recoverable damages.”

Walker gave an example of a case that went to court in 2016 after a woman went overboard on a Carnival ship in the Gulf of Mexico.

Advocacy groups like the International Cruise Victims (ICV) organization have been lobbying to amend DOSHA for over a decade, aiming to allow families to seek compensation for emotional and non-economic losses. However, it has seen little progress.

While incidents of passengers going overboard are rare, with 31.7 million people cruising worldwide in 2023, each case shows the need for enhanced safety measures and remaining vigilant while cruising.

A further look at man-overboard incidents dating back to the 1990s can be found on CruiseJunkie.