Monday, April 1, 2024

James Grimes reveals how he survived 20 hours overboard

falling off cruise ship

The Alabama man who fell off a Carnival cruise ship and miraculously survived nearly 20 hours treading water says he fought off what he feared was a shark and was forced to eat floating bamboo as he desperately clung to hope he would be rescued. Daniel Miranda, another passenger, told the station that cruise officials said that they had “verified through the cameras” that a woman had fallen into the water. A photo he took, broadcast by the station, also showed that the area of the ship where the woman fell had been cordoned off with blue tape. One passenger told a California news station, KABC-TV, that he heard someone say, “Man overboard, man overboard port side” on the ship’s speakers.

How does someone go overboard from a cruise ship?

But Grimes, who said he came to in the water after losing consciousness, never once thought about giving up during the countless hours he spent treading water. The statistical chances of going into the water are slim — and are even slimmer when passengers keep their wits about them, experts have said. For Grimes, the system returned over 7,000 square nautical miles of ocean where he could be, which is about the size of Massachusetts — so anything you can do to increase the chances of being spotted can help. Keeping your cool in life-or-death situations is key, as panicking is "the biggest thing that will kill you in a survival situation," according to Bigney. "When people enter into a body of water they usually damage their lungs right away, because they gasp," Bigney explained.

Passenger rescued after falling off 10th deck of cruise ship, Coast Guard says

Levion Parker plays in a North Port Huskies game at Butler Field in this 2019 file photo. Parker jumped or fell from a cruise ship earlier this month, according to authorities. And of course, those steps would require cruise lines to actively remind passengers that amid all that fun and freedom, there’s also risk—to acquaint them with the terrifying truth that every so often, a carefree cruise vacation turns into an unimaginable maritime tragedy. Cruisers, for their part, are also starting to demand change; some cruise enthusiasts are beginning to encourage cruisers to ask cruise lines why, if this tech is available and MOBs continue to happen, it’s not being installed, especially on newer ships. US congresswoman Doris Matsui from California was an original co-sponsor of the CVSSA, and in 2017 proposed bipartisan legislation to further strengthen that bill, known as the Cruise Passenger Protection Act. Among other measures, the act would amend the clause pertaining to man-overboard technology to say that cruise lines must implement complete MOB-detection tech, not just image-capture.

Make a signal however you can — including with trash

Between 1995 and the first half 2017, 23% of MOBs were crew, according to Ross Klein’s data (this percentage was prepared by Klein for a legal case, which is why the date range goes back to 1995). So far in 2018, he has counted seven crew MOBs, with one of those resulting in a rescue. Using radars and infrared cameras, the company says its system has been shown two false positives per week on average (which it notes is low compared to other systems) and has been tested extensively in all maritime conditions.

Often, it’s the legal and justice system of a country most of the travelers have never set foot in. Questions of labor, environment, and safety are also determined by the flag state. Should an incident happen while a vessel is sitting in a port, jurisdiction would lie with the port state, and cruise lines often report incidents that occur on the high seas to law enforcement in their next port of call, as well as to their ship’s flag state. Indeed, though most cruise ships have video surveillance equipment installed, someone has to be monitoring those images at all times to know if a person has gone overboard—no easy feat on a mega-ship carrying thousands of people. A so-called “complete” MOB-detection system eliminates the need for a human to witness the incident in real time, either in person or on a CCTV screen. It does this by installing a network of sensors (including radar, infrared, and/or video) designed to detect when a body has fallen overboard.

The Coast Guard called off its search for Hill when he wasn't found after covering more than 1,347 square miles. 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. In a statement Wednesday, Royal Caribbean confirmed a passenger went overboard Sunday close to the Dominican Republic. The passenger, according to the Coast Guard, turned out to be James Grimes, 28, who had been traveling with his parents and siblings on the five-day cruise. The Carnival Valor had been at sea for only a day when calls came over the loudspeaker asking a certain passenger to please report to customer service.

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"I thought after that we were going to be here trying to recover a body," Kuhn said, recalling that he thought, "There's no way someone can survive that fall. Like that's a long fall." “The fall didn’t kill me, sea creatures didn’t eat me — I felt like I was meant to get out of there,” Grimes said. His rescuers believe he was moments away from perishing in the water given the hypothermia, shock and dehydration he was suffering from. Speaking about the moment he first spotted the cargo ship, Grimes said he was doing everything he could to catch its attention. "I always thought there's a greater purpose for my life," he told ABC News.

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However, Royal Caribbean told Quartz that it does not agree with the claim that there is a lack of mental health support for crew, leading to suicides. “Mental health issues are difficult anywhere in society and we see no evidence that these tragedies are more prevalent than they are in the general population.” It added that medical care for crew includes referrals to specialists where required. In their suit, the Skokan family argues that Royal Caribbean prematurely and inaccurately called their son’s MOB in December 2016 an intentional act, adding to their trauma and anguish. Paul Hoffman, the Skokan family’s lawyer, reached by Quartz, declined to comment on behalf of his clients due to the ongoing trial. Royal Caribbean also declined to comment on a case still before the court.

Man overboard! How easy is it to fall overboard on a cruise ship, and how can you survive? - Florida Today

Man overboard! How easy is it to fall overboard on a cruise ship, and how can you survive?.

Posted: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Jaylen Hill jumped off a Carnival cruise ship and was not found during a search, the company said

In each of these cases, the person’s absence was only discovered several hours after they disappeared. Falling overboard is one of the rarest events that can happen on cruise ships, and there are specific safety standards in place to reduce the risk. High railings on public decks prevent passengers from getting blown or swept off accidentally, and security cameras record what’s going on in public places. There’s no official detection system for people who fall overboard quite yet, but the Coast Guard reportedly has technology in the works.

falling off cruise ship

Fellow travelers aboard the 15-deck cruise ship said they watched in horror as they thought the woman would not be found after going overboard. Witnesses said cruise-crew members quickly launched a rescue boat to search for the woman, managed to find her, and brought her safely back on board in a roughly 45-minute ordeal. 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.

And of course, enough people work on cruise ships that it’s statistically probable some of them might commit suicide even if they never stepped on board. But Walker argues that there is little consideration of the fact that these harsh labor conditions might be leading some to jump. Carnival did not directly respond to questions about the role of alcohol in MOB incidents. CLIA said ”however uncommon, CLIA cruise lines take seriously the possibility of guests engaging in unauthorized risky activity that could lead to them going overboard,” and is testing systems to detect when that’s happening, as well as enhancing crew training. Here’s what her family has been able to glean about the 33-year-old’s roughly 12 hours onboard that ship, which has a capacity of over 4,000 passengers and crew, and boasts a rum bar, a tequila bar, and a sports bar, as well as a casino and a Mexican cantina. Broberg—who at 5’5,” weighed 120 lbs—was served 19 drinks, her husband alleges in an ongoing civil suit (pdf) he brought against Carnival.

Just before 2am, after leaving a bar, she climbed onto a deck chair that was pushed up against a railing on the pool deck. A passenger on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship fell overboard from the 10th deck of the liner into the ocean more than 30 miles off the coast of the Dominican Republic — but survived after a dramatic, nearly hourlong rescue. The woman, who was not immediately identified, was aboard a Carnival cruise ship when she fell on Saturday morning “from the balcony of her stateroom,” Carnival Cruise Line said in a statement. The company said the ship had been on a three-day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico, and the Coast Guard said the woman fell near there. The passenger who fell off a cruise ship last week said he spent 20 hours in the water before he was rescued by the Coast Guard.

Presumably for tax purposes, these lines are incorporated in Liberia, Bermuda, and Panama respectively. Klein’s data only includes a relatively small number where alcohol was definitively confirmed as a cause. But he emphasizes that those are only cases where media could confirm intoxication prior to the incident. Given that media reports are often based on information provided by the cruise lines, he notes that this number likely under-represents the role of alcohol. There is no centralized reporting mechanism and cruise lines are not required to divulge this information to anyone. Of course, there is also rarely a body to recover, autopsy, and determine what an individual’s blood alcohol level was when they fell, jumped, or were pushed.

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