carnival cruise crash 2022

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A cruise ship passenger was rescued by the Coast Guard after hours in Gulf waters

Giulia Heyward

A Carnival cruise ship docked in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

A Carnival cruise ship docked in San Francisco, California.

A cruise ship passenger had been missing for hours before he was rescued from sea waters by the U.S. Coast Guard off of Louisiana's southeast coast on Thursday evening.

The passenger, who officials identified as a 28-year old man, was found about 20 miles south of Southwest Pass, La., after he'd fallen overboard from a Carnival Valor cruise ship on Wednesday evening, the Coast Guard said in a press release.

However, cruise ship officials did not contact the Coast Guard New Orleans Sector to report the missing passenger until 2:30 p.m. local time on Thursday. Hours later, aircrew members of the Coast Guard rescued the passenger at 8:25 p.m. It was a crew aboard the bulk carrier vessel Crinis that had alerted Coast Guard members to the man's location after spotting a person in the water.

In footage released by the Coast Guard, the passenger is lifted from the dark waters and onto a helicopter operated by an aircrew. He was then transported to the New Orleans Lakefront Airport to receive emergency medical attention. The passenger was in stable condition as of Friday.

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"We are beyond grateful that this case ended with a positive outcome," said Lt. Seth Gross, a Sector New Orleans search and rescue mission coordinator.

Footage from the rescue of the cruise ship passenger last night. Can also be downloaded here: https://t.co/xk0pBnVr1E pic.twitter.com/GK1IXCKlgx — USCG Heartland (@USCGHeartland) November 25, 2022

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"It took a total team effort from Coast Guard watchstanders, response crews, and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing individual and get him to safety," Gross said. "If not for the alert crew aboard the motor vessel Crinis, this case could have had a much more difficult ending."

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'Rogue wave' hits Viking cruise ship, killing 1 passenger and injuring 4 others

One person died and four others were injured after a "rogue wave" hit the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, on Tuesday night, officials said.

“It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident,” Viking said in a statement Thursday. “We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies. We will continue to offer our full support to the family in the hours and days ahead.”

The name and hometown of the passenger was not released, but Argentine authorities identified her as a 62-year-old American who was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows, according to The Associated Press .

The four other guests had non-life-threatening injuries and received treatment from doctors and medical staff onboard.

Rogue waves, or extreme storm waves, are uncommon, unpredictable and "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves," according to the National Ocean Service . They are described as "walls of water" in most reports.

Suzie Gooding, who was on the ship when the incident happened, recalled feeling like they'd hit an iceberg, according to NBC affiliate WRAL of Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Everything was fine until the rogue wave hit, and it was just sudden. Shocking,” Gooding told the news station. “We didn’t know if we should get our gear ready for abandoning ship.”

The ship "sustained limited damage during the incident" and arrived in Ushuaia Wednesday afternoon, Viking said in its statement.

"We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," the company said. "Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, and we are working directly with them to arrange return travel."

The Viking Polaris’ next departure, the Antarctic Explorer cruise scheduled for Dec. 5-17, was canceled due to the incident.

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Carnival cruise ship battered by waves in storm off Charleston

By Aliza Chasan

Updated on: May 29, 2023 / 4:16 PM EDT / CBS News

A storm off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, battered a Carnival cruise ship for hours late Friday night before it docked, leaving passengers terrified.

Passengers aboard the Carnival Sunshine described shattered glass, water pouring into rooms and hallways, the ship pitching about and a lack of communication from cruise staff. Some passengers and crew members needed "minor assistance" from medical staff, a Carnival cruise spokesman told CBS News. "Guests on board the ship were safe," the spokesman added. 

Carnival Sunshine, which was headed from the Bahamas to South Carolina, arrived in Charleston behind schedule, according to the spokesman. Some crew cabins needed to be temporarily taken out of service because of water damage. The ship's next voyage, on which it has since embarked, was also delayed.

The National Hurricane Center on Friday warned of a non-tropical area of low pressure off Florida that was set to move northward and inland over the Carolinas during the weekend. Forecasters said there would be gusty winds, dangerous surf and rip current conditions along portions of the U.S.'s southeastern coast through Sunday.

Passenger Sharon Tutrone, a professor at Coastal Carolina University, tweeted Friday that the ship was rocking. She said that the only time passengers heard from the captain was in the afternoon, when he told them he had an experienced crew and would do everything he could to minimize discomfort as the ship encountered the storm. 

"They said it will get worse as we get closer to the storm," she tweeted. "@CarnivalCruise  is doing an EXCELLENT job!"

She tweeted again on Saturday afternoon, describing " 14 hours of high winds, rain and massive waves ." 

"We were surrounded by lightning and the ship took a huge hit by a wave and sounded like it split in two," Tutrone tweeted.

Several passengers, including Brenda Goodwin Sherbert, posted on social media about broken glass on the ship . They also wrote about water coming in through balcony doors.

"We had a 40 foot wave hit our side of the ship,.. we almost fell out the bed.. things were crashing all around us and the carpet on my side of the bed was soaked bc water came in thru our balcony door," Goodwin Sherbert wrote.

Passenger Reid Overcash, who was on the cruise with his wife, said televisions on the ship displayed a message during the storm: "Public address announcement please standby." 

He said it was when winds had reached between 70-90 mph and the ship was tilting left that he truly feared for his life.

"Myself being in emergency services and retired, I knew nobody was going to come and rescue us with winds over 40 knots," Overcash said.

The trip marked Overcash's seventh cruise. He said he's not going to let the frightening experience stop him from going on more cruises in the future. 

"It's just one of them unlucky experiences that occurs once in a while," he said.

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Aliza Chasan is a digital producer at 60 Minutes and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.

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Live updates, carnival cruise ship catches fire in turks and caicos.

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Dramatic videos emerged on social media Thursday, showing flames and thick black smoke pouring out of the smokestack of a Carnival Cruise ship in the Turks and Caicos.

The cruise line confirmed that a part of Carnival Freedom caught fire after the ship docked at Grand Turk.

“Carnival Freedom’s emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship’s funnel while the ship was in Grand Turk,” company spokesperson Matt Lupoli told The Post in a statement. “All guests and crew are safe, and the ship’s guests were cleared by local authorities to go ashore.”

No injuries were reported and the ship was not evacuated during the emergency. The cause of the fire remains unknown at this time.

Still photos and cellphone recordings that have been circulating on Twitter depicted smoke billowing from the right fin of the smokestack, painted red, white and blue, as reported by ClickOrlando.

Carnival Freedom set sail from Port Canaveral, Florida, on May 23 on a five-day cruise. It is scheduled to return Saturday.

Carnival Freedom was launched in 2007. It measures 952 feet in length, has 13 decks and can accommodate up to 2,980 passengers and 1,150 crew.

At the time of the fire, the vessel was carrying about 2,500 passengers and 1,100 crew members, according to the cruise line.

Passenger Jenny Fleming told Florida Today that she and her mother were drinking coffee on a balcony as Carnival Freedom was docking at Grand Turk at around 7:30 a.m. local time, when some people on an adjacent ship, Carnival Mardi Gras , alerted them to the fire.

“Mom runs inside and calls 911, and we were apparently the first to report it,” Fleming said.

Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control, and the passengers got the all-clear at around 8:40 a.m.

The fire was reported around the same time as another Carnival Cruise ship, Carnival Magic, docked in Norfolk, Virginia , after passengers began vomiting and complaining of nausea caused by a chemical smell.

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Fight on Carnival Magic cruise ship which sparked emergency response near Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge stemmed from cheating accusations: Report

• Published: Jul. 01, 2022, 4:29 p.m.

The Carnival Magic cruise ship passes under the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. Thursday, June 16, 2022. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)

• David Luces | [email protected]

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A large fight that broke out on a cruise ship resulting in an emergency response near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge on Tuesday, broke out over cheating accusations and an alleged threesome, a witness told Fox News Digital .

The fight started when two individuals accused their partners of cheating in a threesome, the witness said.

An estimated 40 to 60 people were involved in the melee on the dance floor of a nightclub on the ship in the waters adjacent to the bridge, multiple sources previously told the Advance/SiLive.com

Theresa James, a travel agent, told the outlet that fight occurred in a nightclub on the fifth floor of the Carnival Magic ship at around 2 a.m.

Those involved began shoving each other and smashing beer bottles. A woman may have been sliced in the incident, according to James.

“Ignorant fools acting stupid,” she said.

The ship’s security team tried to break up the fight, but eventually called the U.S. Coast Guard to assist in the situation.

The U.S. Coast Guard was alerted around 4 a.m. to a report of a fight on the Carnival cruise ship Magic in the vicinity of the span, according to a spokesman for the agency.

The Coast Guard escorted the ship to Pier 88 in Manhattan where members of the NYPD met the vessel and passengers disembarked without further incident, according to multiple sources.

Another passenger, under the Twitter handle @nyeem0, detailed some passengers were “injured and cut up from glass” and that almost all of the ship’s security guards responded to the club to stop the fight.

“On Monday night while Carnival Magic was returning to New York, a number of guests were involved in an altercation in a nightclub,” said a statement from Carnival Corporation. “Thankfully, no serious injuries were reported and our onboard security team intervened. The ship arrived as scheduled Tuesday morning and law-enforcement authorities were notified and met the ship to interview suspects and witnesses and conduct an investigation.”

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Man dies after jumping overboard during a Carnival cruise, the 2nd such incident in less than a month

• A man died after jumping off a Carnival cruise ship two hours after it departed the Turks and Caicos Islands.
• The man was on the fourth day of a six-day cruise that departed Miami on Sunday.
• This is the second such incident in less than a month. 

A man has died after jumping off a Carnival cruise ship, the second such incident aboard a Carnival vessel in less than a month. 

A representative for Carnival Cruise Line told Insider that the guest had been seen jumping overboard from Deck 11 of the Carnival Horizon at around 7 p.m. EST on Wednesday. The incident occurred two hours after the ship departed the Turks and Caicos Islands.

"The ship's command immediately began search and rescue procedures, returned to the area near where the incident occurred, and notified the US Coast Guard," the Carnival representative said.

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A representative from the Coast Guard told Insider that a helicopter had been dispatched to help with the search and rescue mission. 

"A Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew assisted the Turks and Caicos officials and cruise ship Carnival Horizon to locate a person in the water about 7 miles north of Drum Point, Turks and Caicos," the Coast Guard representative said.

"The Jayhawk helicopter crew hoisted the man and transferred him to officials in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos."

The coast guard and the ship's crew recovered the man's body before 10.30 p.m. EST. Carnival did not identify the man in its response to Insider.

According to the Carnival representative, the man's wife was traveling with him on the Carnival Horizon, which departed Miami on Sunday and was due to return on Saturday. 

"Carnival's Care team is providing assistance to his family. The ship has been cleared by the Coast Guard to resume its course," the representative said. 

Wednesday's death was the second such incident aboard a Carnival ship in less than a month.

On February 18, a search was suspended for a missing 32-year-old woman who reportedly jumped overboard from the Carnival Valor while off the Louisiana coast, per The Washington Post . Rescue crews covered more than 2,5000 square nautical miles during their 14-hour search for the passenger.

According to the  International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health , 58 passengers and 14 crew members died from falling overboard on cruise ships between 2001 and 2019. Over the same period, 55 passengers and five crew died after jumping off vessels in suspected suicides.

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Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Will Dunham

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Ananya as the U.S. Consumer and Retail Sector Specialist covers breaking and business news on major firms including Walmart, Nike, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola among other U.S. listed Cruises, Apparel Makers, Discount Stores, Beverages, Second-hand Retailers, Restaurants, Luxury companies. She writes long-form initiative stories supported by data sets explaining the current consumer demand trends in the U.S. and the impact of macroeconomic conditions on retailers and companies. As a sector lead, she mentors and trains newer members of the team bringing them up to speed with sector knowledge.

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Carnival Freedom's next two sailings canceled after funnel fire, second within 2 years

A fire in the exhaust funnel of the Carnival Freedom this weekend has disrupted a cruise for the second time in less than two years — and will mean that the Florida-based ship's next two sailings are canceled.

Damage to the funnel will require the cancellation of Carnival's next two cruises out of Port Canaveral, which were scheduled to depart Monday and Friday.

There were about 3,700 passengers onboard the ship when the fire occured. And the two upcoming sailings, which were canceled, likely would have had a similar passenger count amid the busy Spring Break season.

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Carnival initially had said it expected no changes in its upcoming cruises, but on Sunday afternoon said the cancellations would be required.

"Regrettably, the damage is more than we first thought, and will require an immediate repair to stabilize the funnel, resulting in the cancellation of the March 25 and March 29 cruises from Port Canaveral," according to a statement issued by Matt Lupoli, Carnival Cruise Line's senior manager of public relations. "The funnel has been stabilized for the ship’s return to Port Canaveral overnight to disembark guests, and then it will go to the Freeport shipyard on Monday afternoon to begin the required repairs."

Carnival said it made the decision after "our technical team completed a thorough assessment" during the ship’s visit Sunday to Freeport in the Bahamas.

In the statement, Carnival said: "We sincerely regret the impact to our embarking guests, as we know they have been looking forward to their spring break vacation. We are providing all guests on both canceled cruises a full refund and a 100% future cruise credit, so they can come back and enjoy a future cruise with us. We also greatly appreciate the terrific guests who are currently sailing with us, for their outstanding cooperation and support."

In a Facebook post, Carnival's widely followed brand ambassador, John Heald, conceded that many people who booked one of the canceled cruises are "feeling very disappointed," and he apologized for the turn of events.

But, Heald added that he wanted to assure affected passengers that, "when you rebook, using your full refund and your 100% future cruise credit, that the crew will be standing by to give you all the fun you deserve."

More than 500 people responded to the post, with many saying they thought Carnival was generous with the compensation offer. But some people who said they were on the cruise that experienced the fire said they thought Carnival should have done more for the people who were on the ship.

Carnival said the fire was confined to the funnel area. The cruise line said there are no reports of injuries to passengers. Two firefighting crew members were treated for minor smoke inhalation.

Carnival said that, at about 3:15 p.m. Saturday, the Carnival Freedom reported a fire on the port side of the ship’s exhaust funnel. The ship was 20 miles off Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, heading to Freeport after a canceled call to the Carnival private island of Princess Cays due to adverse weather.

"The ship’s fire response team was quickly activated, and the ship’s captain also turned the vessel towards the heavy rain in the area to maximize the efforts to put out the flames," an earlier Carnival statement said. "Eyewitnesses reported the possibility of a lightning strike, and that is being investigated, but cannot yet be confirmed."

By 5:20 p.m. Saturday, the fire was extinguished. 

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Carnival said the ship's captain made multiple announcements to passengers and crew, and advised all but essential safety personnel to stay away from balconies and all open decks. 

The port-side portion of the funnel had fallen onto Deck 10, and the firefighting response put out any flames. 

The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified of the fire, and Carnival activated its incident response team to support the ship’s crew. 

Carnival said there were no other operational issues with the ship’s systems, and the ship, which was on a four-night cruise, was visiting Freeport on Sunday.

A cruise ship funnel generally serves as a smokestack to lift emissions above the deck, thus away from passengers and crew.

On Saturday evening, "Carnival Freedom guests enjoyed the Elegant Night dinner as planned, and, with the exception of the open decks, all areas of the ship are fully functioning," Carnival said in its statement. 

The Carnival Freedom's next voyage was scheduled to depart from Port Canaveral on Monday afternoon on a five-night Eastern Caribbean cruise. That cruise had port-of-call stops scheduled at Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic and at Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

But that sailing and a Friday sailing both have been canceled. Friday's five-night sailing also was scheduled to stop at those two ports of call, but in reverse order.

In May 2022 , a fire broke out in the funnel area of the Carnival Freedom while it was docked in Grand Turk. Carnival then canceled three scheduled sailings of the Carnival Freedom out of Port Canaveral because of the need to repair the ship's fire damage at a shipyard in Grand Bahama.

More recently, in October 2023, the Carnival Freedom debuted a new iconic winged funnel after returning from a 16-day dry-dock refurbishment in Cadiz, Spain.

Dave Berman is business editor at  FLORIDA TODAY.  Contact Berman at  [email protected] .

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Carnival Freedom's next two sailings canceled after funnel fire, second within 2 years

Money Report

Viking shares rise 8% after cruise line operator's market debut

By seema mody,cnbc • published may 1, 2024 • updated on may 1, 2024 at 5:03 pm.

• Viking started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday at $26.15 under the ticker "VIK."
• The company's IPO coincides with a strong rebound in cruise bookings.

Viking is not your typical cruise operator.

Aboard its smaller, upscale vessels, you won't find any kids. In fact, the cruise line doesn't hide the fact that it is going after the high-income baby boomer.

Casinos? Not on these cruise ships.

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In Viking Holdings' prospectus, the company said its cruises are for the "thinking person," underscoring its efforts to appeal to the baby boomer traveler who seeks adventure and new experiences.

"They have the money, they have the time and, in my belief, the moment you try to do everything for everybody, you know what happens? You do nothing well. So we are very, very clear focused," Torstein Hagen, CEO and chairman of Viking, told CNBC.

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The luxury cruise line was targeting a $10.4 billion valuation in its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, making it the third-largest cruise operator after Royal Caribbean and Carnival . Norwegian Cruise Line is the fourth largest. Viking started trading Wednesday at $26.15 a share under the ticker " VIK " after pricing at $24 a share.

It closed its first trading day with a gain of more than 8%, ending at $26.10 per share.

Viking upsized its IPO after existing shareholders decided to sell an additional 9 million shares amid strong demand from mutual fund investors, according to a source familiar with the situation.

In 1997, Viking had four ships. It has quickly grown its fleet to 92 vessels, 80 of which are river-based ships that travel down the world's biggest rivers, including the Seine in France and the Nile in Egypt.

"We're different because when you talk about the big cruise lines, they're large in the Caribbean," Hagen said. "We have a tiny sliver in the Caribbean. The rest is Europe."

The timing of Viking's IPO coincides with a strong rebound in cruise bookings. On April 25, Royal Caribbean raised its guidance for 2024 amid a bright outlook for the sector.

"Cruising has really come into the forefront as a competitive choice in travel," Jason Liberty, CEO of Royal Caribbean, said to CNBC in a recent interview. "The overall travel industry is $1.9 trillion. The cruise industry is $56 billion of that. I think cruising is at a much different level than it was pre-pandemic."

While the company's prospectus showed Viking brought in $4.71 billion in sales in 2023, it did report a net loss for the year. What is getting investors excited is the company's revenue per passenger of $7,251, which is much higher than that of any other publicly traded cruise line. Viking's premium price point allows it to make more money on each customer.

Investors will also be looking for details on Viking's expansion plans. Earlier this month, Norwegian Cruise Line said it ordered eight new ships scheduled for delivery over the next 12 years.

Carnival, Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises all have robust portfolios, which has raised concerns of overcapacity weighing on demand. But for now, the industry is focused on how well demand has rebounded from the pandemic and that, even with higher prices , cruising is still cheaper on average than hotel vacations.

UBS leisure analyst Robin Farley said land-based hotel rates are 25% higher than in 2019. During that same time frame, cruise line rates are up 10%.

"The gap between cruising and hotels is wide. That makes cruise compelling right now," Farley said.

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