A woman who fell from the deck of the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship late Sunday was allegedly “clowning around”, according to her boyfriend and traveling companion, Jorge Caputo. Caputo, who was there at the time of the incident, claims that Mindy Jordan, a 46 year old practical nurse and mother of two was “clowning around and she fell over” though Jordan’s family is undoubtedly skeptical.
Mindy’s sister, Julie August of Mt. Laurel, N.J., told the press that she and other relatives learned of her sister’s disappearance from Caputo. As to whether or not Caputo is telling the truth about what happened, August said, “Who knows? We weren’t there.”
What we do know is that Mindy Jordan fell off the Norwegian Dawn around 7:50 PM on Sunday, just hours after the ship pulled out of New York City on a one-week cruise to Bermuda. Searches were immediately organized and rescue operations were put underway, however they’ve been forced to cancel multiple times since Sunday due to hazardous weather conditions.
Clowning around or not, Jordan’s relatives are clearly distraught and calling for a full investigation into the incident.
Jordan’s sister says that, “It’s just not adding up. My sister is a professional. She’s a nurse and a mother. This is not somebody who’s going to be jumping up on a rail.”
Speaking to WPVI-TV, an ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, Jordan’s mother, Louise Horton of New Jersey, expressed frustration with Jordan’s boyfriend – when she talked to him on the ship and asked him what he was going to do about the situation all he said was “I guess I’m just going to have to go on to Bermuda.”
The ship is scheduled to reach Bermuda Wednesday.
This is, of course, only the latest in a string of similar “passenger overboard” incidents and I think, it plainly begs the question, who is truly at fault here?
Obviously, if foul play is involved then the incident is neither the fault of the passenger or the cruise line. Still, it is curious that so many of these types of things are occurring with such increasing frequency. Most people agree that it would be really hard for the average person to just fall off of a ship and some have even said that with railings that are typically 4 to 5 feet high, it may even be impossible – especially for someone to be thrown off.
So, how is it that so many people continue to go overboard?
On April 24, a 44-year-old man from Illinois, Steven Manning, went missing from the cruise ship Carnival Victory approximately 38 miles northeast of Cozumel, Mexico. The Coast Guard searched after being notified but never found him.
On March 9th, Tina White, age 39, was reported missing from a Costa Mediterranea ship. Ms. White, was last seen aboard the ship by her boyfriend and traveling companion, Andy Hopkins.
Interesting…and sounds familiar.
On June 18 of last year, friends and family last saw Brent Smith resting on the balcony of his stateroom aboard the Freedom Of The Seas cruise ship. Smith was on the cruise with his parents, two siblings, and a family friend. The ship was enroute to Puerto Rico, and was sailing near Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas when it is thought Smith went overboard. He was never found.
The list goes on and on.
CruiseBruise.com keeps an update list of cruise passengers who have disappeared aboard cruise ships.
The Safe Cruise website reports that since the year 2000, 98 individuals have gone overboard – and also claims that the cruise lines, in some way, profit from the deaths and disappearances of these passengers by staging “murder mystery cruises”, a move clearly in bad taste considering the circumstances.
Anyone would have to agree, that’s just poor taste.
So, clearly, better security at sea is something passengers desperately need – more safety is surely a good thing. Some experts have suggested having “sea marshals” aboard ships, the same as air marshals aboard planes. However, in the end, maybe people really just need to be saved from themselves.
