CRUISE liner passenger has been arrested by Italian police after his wife vanished overboard

The Sun - UK 5/29/06

A CRUISE liner passenger has been arrested by Italian police after his wife ... She went missing on Thursday after the ship stopped at the Mediterranean volcano. Dozens of British holidaymakers on the Island Escape joined in a vain search for the woman. The body of an American woman in her 50s was later washed up on the Italian coast.

Person Overboard on Carnival Legend (Developing Story)

Unknown Male Passenger
Missing on Carnival Cruise Lines Legend -
May 27, 2006

Family of 21 Year Old Ohio Man Who Fell Overboard on Royal Caribbean Returns Home Angry & with Unanswered Questions After Visiting Ship

http://www.prnewswire.com=
MIAMI, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty-One (21) year old, Daniel LouisDiPiero, of Canfield, Ohio, tragically fell to his death while a passengeraboard the Mariner of the Seas. The cruise ship had left Florida and washeading for the Bahamas. Daniel was last seen at approximately midnight ofthe first night of the cruise on the way to the Bahamas. A ship securitycamera revealed Daniel alone on the fourth deck of the ship near the frontof the ship where he apparently passed out for the next two (2) hours. The camera captured further footage showing Daniel going overboard atapproximately 2:16 a.m., apparently showing Daniel getting sick and leaningoverboard when he fell. Despite the video footage, the authorities were not alerted until 7:00p.m. Apparently, RCCL does not monitor their security cameras. It appearsafter Daniel was reported missing by his friends the video footage whichwould have shown Daniel going overboard was not promptly reviewed.Accordingly there was a significant delay in any rescue efforts for Daniel. Although the cruise line made arrangements to fly the family to St.Thomas to go onboard the ship to see where Daniel went overboard and tolearn more details about what happened to Daniel, the family soon realizedit was simply part of the cruise ship's attempt to maintain a favorablelight in the public. The family was appalled to learn Royal Caribbeanimmediately issued a statement to all of the passengers onboard the ship,revealing confidential information that had been obtained by the FBI duringtheir investigation, and omitting other information surrounding thecircumstances of Daniel's death which would have more accurately explainedwhat happened. Royal Caribbean issued a statement to the passengers, andthen went immediately into the public media, stating that Daniel, alongwith friends who he was traveling with, had "smuggled" liquor onboard theship and had consumed that liquor prior to falling overboard. This was anobvious attempt to immediately portray to the passengers onboard the ship, as well as to the general public, that the tragic incident was totally the fault of Daniel. The cruise ship seized a video tape by Daniel and hisfriends and discussed its contents with passengers and the media, allwithin hours of the family having been advised of the tragic death ofDaniel. These inexcusable actions on the part of the cruise line havecaused severe/emotional trauma to the family and friends...

Poor Safety and Security: Cruise Lines Bottom Out

Unsafe cruise ship detained in Great Britain
REUTERS (London) May 17, 2006 "Vistamar, flying the Maltese flag, was detained by inspectors because of safety abuses. Concerns were raised when items such as fire dampers were clearly inoperative; both lifeboats were damaged; escape signs were missing and various means of escape were not marked clearly,"

Shares of Carnival Corp. Dropped 12 per cent yesterday Timesonline.co.uk (London) May 17, 2006 Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises, the world's second biggest luxury cruise operator, fell about 5 per cent on concern that its arch-rival's announcement could signal difficulties across the industry. Analysts said that Carnival could also be suffering from a shift in sentiment towards cruising in North America. In addition to a fire on one of its ships in March, which killed one passenger and injured 11 others, Carnival is one of 15 cruise lines involved in a US Congress investigation into sexual assaults on cruises.

Celebrity Cruise Ship Captain Fails Breath-Alcohol Test Seattle Post-Intelligencer May 20, 2006 The Mercury, which has a capacity to carry 1,884 passengers, was delayed in port at Pier 66 for more than an hour before departing at 6:30 p.m., under the direction of another captain. Lt. Cmdr. Rick Rodriguez of the Coast Guard said the captain was being investigated for operating a commercial vessel under the influence of alcohol, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.

On May 25 Montel Williams will Interview Members of International Cruise Victims

http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org
The family of George Smith, Jamie Decker and her mother Marilyn, Nancy Nelson and her son Mark, Kendall Carver and Dr. Henry Lee will be on the Montel show discussing the investigation into George Smith's disappearance. The American public needs to be aware of the dirty little secrets of the cruise lines. We thank Montel for his help getting the word out regarding the sinister side of cruising and the need for reform.

Coast Guard Hunts Man Overboard during Cruise from Cape Canaveral to Bahamas

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sfl-516manoverboard,0,4401592.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
MIAMI- The Coast Guard has launched a search for a passenger on a cruise ship after he disappeared during a voyage with friends from Cape Canaveral to the Bahamas.Petty Officer Dana Warr said the Daniel DiPiero, 21, of Canfield, Ohio, boarded Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas in Cape Canaveral on Sunday. He was with six friends.

Here is more evidence that the cruise lines are unwilling to take actions to improve passenger safety and security:
The Freeport News 5/17/06 : "The cruise line was at sea for about 11 hours before he was reported missing." 11 Hours!
WDIV Detroit 5/17/06 : "Royal Caribbean said it waited roughly eight hours to alert the Coast Guard because it first wanted to make sure the missing passenger was not on the ship or on the company's private island where the ship docked."

Hopefully, the FBI will conduct a thorough review also. As with all missing person cases, foul play cannot be ruled out without an independent investigation. Royal Caribbean seems to be emphasizing the fact that he was near the railing when last seen on camera. Many passengers spend time leaning or looking over the railing. We hope the cruise line is not trying to create a first impression that the incident was caused by his behavior. This has been the pattern of behavior for the cruise lines for many of the 47 incidents of persons overboard since the year 2000. If they are unable to keep bad publicity to a minimum they try to steer the blame elsewhere. They are the the trained professionals and should be responsible. The victims are inexperienced.

As noted below a crew member died recently from violence on a cruise ship: ITV.com - UK Sat May 13 2006 A team of British detectives have boarded the luxury liner Queen Mary 2 after a crewman died following a fight onboard. This highlights the need to have independent law enforcement aboard all major cruise ships and for Congress to improve cruise vacation safety and security regulations.

Any action they take will be geared towards improving their public image: Royal Caribbean International President Adam Goldstein said the industry has been giving travel agents "talking points" to emphasize ship security, if customers ask about the Smith case and other safety matters. Hell with taking any action to improve cruise ship safety and secruity, they don't even want to discuss it: Dickinson suggested the panel refrain from discussing the Smith case. "I hate to see you talk about it because you're giving it legs," he said about the story.

Any action the cruise companies take seem to be geared towards improving their public image: Royal Caribbean International President Adam Goldstein said the industry has been giving travel agents "talking points" to emphasize ship security, if customers ask about the Smith case and other safety matters. These "talking points seem to be the only action taken by the companies to inprove safety and security. To hell with taking any action to improve cruise ship safety and secruity, they don't even want to discuss it: Dickinson from Carnival suggested the panel refrain from discussing the Smith case. "I hate to see you talk about it because you're giving it legs," he said about the story. Cruise execs: Crime concerns overblown

projectsafecruise.blogspot.com/

Project Safe Cruise will consist of a one week cruise in 2006 that will showcase the type of security and safety system that could be put in place by cruise lines to insure the safety and security of all passengers and crew and at the same time preserve evidence of crimes and/or accidents. On this Maiden Voyage we hope to offer short entertaining seminars and panel discussions by various security experts and perhaps some celebrities, on missing persons, identity theft, date rape, kidnapping, teenage and young child safety, security, safety, and health issues while in other countries or at sea, investment scams for seniors, how to buy art work, etc. We must focus on a postive solution that will benefit all parties involved and prevent future tragedies. This will be a win/win proposition giving all American passengers peace of mind and at the same time reducing crime and saving lives. If you are interested in learning more and perhaps joining the cruise or if you represent the press or would like to sponsor or help plan the cruise please leave contact information in the comments section or send an email to safecruise@hotmail.com. Become a charter member and be a part of history.Project Safe Cruise could be a win-win solution for parties on both sides of the cruise ship safety issue. Look at it as an outside the box idea that is sort of like pre-event arbitration, a partnership if you will. Even though focusing on prevention is less glamorous and less dramatic than solving crimes, it is more efficient and gratifying, especially if we save one life or reduce the suffering of one family. We must work with the cruise lines to set up a cadre of independent contract employees that would act as security ombudsman who would –
o - Know how to deal with a terrorist situation.
o - Have the authority to lock down crime scenes and secure the chain of evidence .
o - Deal immediately and directly with the FBI, Coast Guard, and other agencies and organizations in all ports of call.
o -Provide ongoing security and safety training to crew and travel agents and organizers including shore excursion groups.
o -Record and maintain a database of incidents and present some analysis of current procedures and conduct of parties involved and recommend improvements for all.
The cadre could be staffed by ex-military and ex-law-enforcement personnel who would get salary and/or some free cruise or vacation packages for their work, kind of like how many campgrounds have frequent campers act as hosts. What works good on land should work good on the water including a Neighborhood Watch or Guardian Angel type system that could include frequent customers, crew members, contract employees, travel agents, etc. Design an Amber Alert system for use on ships. The use of this and an independent cadre perhaps named Sea Marshals would provide the most important factor or element for preventing and solving crimes: TIME. We will contact Congressman Shays or his subcommittee for possible grants to solve the problem by thinking outside of the box

International Cruise Victims Association provides comprehensive regulatory framework to congress in support of cruise industry reform
SAMMAMISH, WASHINGTON - MAY 15, 2006: The International Cruise Victims Association, Inc. (ICV), a not for profit corporation formed by families of victims of cruise crimes, has submitted to Congress a comprehensive regulatory framework in support of the ten-point program ICV presented at a Congressional hearing in March of this year.
These proposals, which are in excess of sixty (60) pages in length, contain in part a detailed alcohol abuse policy and a draft proposal for an organization independent of the cruise lines which is responsible for working with the cruise lines and other law enforcement agencies to increase the level of safety and security for passengers and crew members onboard cruise ships. ICV board members are in constant contact with members of the Congressional staff that will be preparing the draft proposal to reform the under-regulated cruise industry. ICV anticipates that it will play a major role in the preparation of this landmark legislation. For more information about the International Cruise Victims Association, please visit www.internationalcruisevictims.org or write to info@internationalcruisevictims.org, phone 425-753-7711, fax 206-374-2944.

Cruise Company Greed Almost Caused Poseidon-like Disaster in April 2005

Poseidon :
$100 million lawsuit filed by "rogue wave" passengers against Norwegian
It had to happen. About 20 passengers who were onboard the Norwegian Dawn when it was hit by a 70-foot rogue wave on April 17 have banded together to sue Norwegian Cruise Line for $100 million, and they hope to get class-action status for all those who were aboard. The group alleges that the ship was unsafely rushing through the storm to New York for an appointment to appear on The Donald's hit TV show, The Apprentice. Sun-Sentinel (South Florida): Plaintiff in suit says 70-foot-high wave was like scene from Perfect Storm

Did TV show taping lure cruise ship into a wave-battering storm?

UK Pushes for Balcony Regulations to Prevent Fires on Cruise Ships

http://www.miami.com Posted on Thu, May. 11, 2006 by Amy Martinez :

Government officials in Great Britain are urging members of the International Maritime Organization meeting this week in London to act quickly and consider new requirements for cruise-ship balconies in the wake of a deadly fire near Jamaica. The Star Princess left from Fort Lauderdale and was on its way from Grand Cayman in the Bahamas to Montego Bay, Jamaica, when the fire broke out. One passenger died after suffering a heart attack and 13 others were treated for smoke inhalation.
Princess Cruises, the ship's operator, is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.

Flint Michigan Family Blames Man's Death on Carnival Cruise Company

DETROIT FREE PRESS (www.freep.com) April 27, 2006 SWARTZ CREEK, Mich. (AP)
The family of a 21-year-old man is blaming the Carnival cruise ship line for his death from a viral infection. Jonathan Kallas, who often speeded, was driving below the limit, looked worn out and kept saying, "Man, I'm just so tired, Dad." On Feb. 1, Julie Kallas returned from work and found her husband dead. The Oakland County medical examiner's office said last year that Jonathan Kallas died from complications of norovirus. Family members say they believe he caught the gastrointestinal illness from food contaminated by ship workers with poor sanitation practices.
"They weren't just negligent. They took our life away," Julie Kallas, 22, told The Flint Journal. "I built my life around him, and now he's gone."

Crewman Dies on Luxury Liner Queen Mary 2 During Fight Onboard

ITV.com - UK Sat May 13 2006

A team of British detectives have boarded the luxury liner Queen Mary 2 after a crewman died following a fight onboard.

Casinos on Cruise Ships related to Mafia and Abramoff Criminals

Connections between casinos on cruise ships, Abramoff criminals, organized crime and Congressman! Who could have guessed? Here are the last few paragraphs from today's Washington Post article, Former Ney Aide Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy."

In a separate case, Ney also has been implicated in Abramoff's fraudulent purchase of a casino cruise ship company in 2000. His alleged involvement took place when Abramoff and two partners were in difficult negotiations to buy SunCruz Casinos from Fort Lauderdale businessman Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record that year that put pressure on Boulis to sell to the Abramoff group. He later entered another statement into the record praising the new owners and saying they "will easily transform SunCruz from a questionable enterprise to an upstanding establishment."

At the time of the second Congressional Record statement, Boulis was privately complaining that the Abramoff group was looting the company.

In February 2001, Boulis was killed in a gangland-style assassination on a busy causeway in Fort Lauderdale. Three men have been charged with the killing, one of whom -- allegedly connected to the Gambino crime family in New York -- was hired by Abramoff's partner, Adam Kidan, to provide catering and security services for SunCruz. Abramoff and Kidan have denied any involvement in the murder or knowledge of it.

A month after the slaying, SunCruz executives, including Abramoff and Kidan, attended a fundraiser for Ney in Abramoff's box at MCI Center in Washington.

Cruise Lines Poor Security Efforts May Put Passengers Identity Info at Risk

CONGRESS MUST ADDRESS
FISCAL SECURITY AS WELL AS PHYSICAL SECURITY FOR CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS!
We know the Cruise Lines provide inadequate physical security for their millions of passengers. Fiscal security may also be lacking for cruise ship passengers. Read paragraphs 9 through 13 of this entry in the Orlando Sentinel.
We are not surprised that the Cruise Lines have poor or non-enforced or non-monitored security procedures for onboard computers. This supports our fear that the cruise companies do not secure the personal and financial information for millions of past and present passengers and we should have a way of checking that the companies or their employees or contractors do not misuse the data fo identity theft, etc. We should be able to demand that our personal/financial data be deleted.

We are concerned with the security of our personal financial/identity data that is now in the hands of the foreign cruise companies. The data includes our social security numbers, our credit car numbers, dates of birth, addresses, email, emergency numbers of friends and relatives, our spending, drinking, eating, and gambling patterns. And worst of all of the digital photos which may be face scans or they perhaps can be converted to face scans.

It is obvious we cannot trust the statistics or security practices of the cruise companies and we are just as sure that no one has looked at the inadequacy of their systems security. They just don't care. Many times the weakest link in computer security is the physical security around the building and the equipment and the communication network and we know that the cruise lines have sub-par physical security. As reported by MSNBC.com and the Jacksonville Business Journal, Carnival was still sending solicitation mail to those who had disappeared. Some of the families got together to complain. With all of the data mining that can be done by computers both legally and illegally it scares us. What kind of assurances can we get legally that our data is deleted and what audit trail and integrity system is in place with these companies and their contractors to show who had access to our data. Is it possible to copyright our personal data and charge a fee for its use or misuse and should we be able to track and have it corrected or deleted like our credit reports? On the news it was just reported that DirecTV was fined 5.5 million dollars just for misuse of phone numbers under the "Do no call" regulations." Citibank, the Pentagon, and other firms we trust have also been hacked into. The cruise lines employ thousands of low-wage workers from dozens of third world countries. Many of them may well have connections to organized crime, gangs, and perhaps terrorist from their home countries. We should think twice before we take a one-week cruise and provide all of our valuable and sensitive personal information. This information could be accessible to hackers for the rest of our lives and lead to identity theft or worse.

New TV Special on Cruise Ship Safety to Air on the Travel Channel May 17, 2006

Travel Advisory: Safe at Sea,
will premiere on Wednesday, May 17th at 8 pm.
Check The Travel Channel website for info on when it will repeat.