Even for our law firm which helps passengers and crew members with legal issues related to cruise ship injuries and accidents, it can be difficult to stay current on all of the incidents that occur on cruise ships here in the U.S. and around the world.
While our office receives weekly emails and calls from people seeking legal aid, we’re still surprised by the number of ‘eye-catching’ headlines that seem to hit daily.
While it’s just the 2nd week of December, here are some recent headlines.
Bus Crash in Tortola Kills 2 Cruise Ship Passengers, Injures 16
From CruiseCritic.com on Dec. 7, 2015: Two people were killed and 16 others injured when a tour bus carrying cruise ship passengers crashed December 6 in Tortola.
The accident Sunday involved passengers from Celebrity Summit, which was visiting the port, on an independently operated bus — not on a Celebrity-organized shore excursion. Two passengers were pronounced dead at the scene, while others were transported to nearby Peebles Hospital. Sixteen people suffered injuries, two of which are critical. Read more here at CruiseCritic.com…
Norwegian Sky Evacuated at PortMiami for Unauthorized Passenger Boarding
From NBC Miami on Dec. 5, 2015: Passengers sat in a PortMiami terminal for hours Friday after a cruise ship was evacuated when a guest tried to board without authorization, officials said.
“The security officer gave us a description of the possible individual who didn’t follow proper procedures of boarding, mind you this person did pass different levels of security prior to leaving the ship, so it wasn’t necessarily in any specific danger involving firearms or anything along those lines,” Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said. Read more here at NBC Miami…
Cruise ship diverts to Oahu for repairs after engine fire
From the Honolulu Star Advertiser on Dec. 7, 2015: The cruise ship Grand Princess docked Tuesday morning in Honolulu Harbor for repairs after a small fire in an engine room led to loss of power at sea. After the ship experienced electrical problems about 20 miles off Hilo on Monday morning with 2,592 passengers aboard, a decision was made to bypass a port call there. Read more here at the Honolulu Star Advertiser…
British military called in to rescue cruise ship passenger bitten by seal
From USA Today on Nov. 30,2015: The British military this week scrambled two aircraft and a warship to a remote area of the South Atlantic to rescue a cruise ship passenger bitten by a seal.
Britain’s Royal Air Force says a search-and-rescue helicopter based in the Falkland Islands flew hundreds of miles to reach the unnamed British man, who was aboard the 92-passenger Akademik Sergey Vavilov. The helicopter was accompanied by a Royal Air Force Hercules tactical transport aircraft.
The man was bitten by what is thought to have been a fur seal. Read more at USA Today…
Guatemalan judge arrested on Disney cruise ship on soccer bribery charges
From CNBC on Dec. 5, 2015: Federal agents boarded a Disney cruise ship in Florida on Friday to arrest a Guatemalan judge who is one of dozens of soccer officials charged by U.S. prosecutors investigating corruption in the sport’s world governing body FIFA.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that Héctor Trujillo, 62, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who went to his cabin door. Trujillo was on a Disney cruise ship docked at Port Canaveral, Florida, when he was arrested, another law enforcement source said. Read more here at CNBC…
Fake Doctor Working Aboard Cruise Ships
And from another cruise ship attorney — Jim Walker –, here is an interesting report posted Dec. 6, 2015: A reader of Cruise law news has brought to our attention that newspapers in Norway and Germany are reporting that the police in Berlin arrested a cruise ship employee impersonating a cruise ship doctor.
In an article titled “Fake Doctor Treated Hundreds of Cruise Passengers,” the German newspaper Aftenposten says that a 40 year old man was arrested in Germany after flying from Miami yesterday to join an AIDA cruise ship. He had been working on cruise ships in the Caribbean, after falsifying documents in order to claim that he was a doctor. He was actually educated as a nurse but had he had worked as a ship doctor for five years the newspapers suggest. Read more here…