Congress Eyes Cruise Ship Dangers (Disappearing Passengers)

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1400466

Lawmakers are set this morning to investigate the potential dangers to vacationers cruising the high seas.

Two congressional committees will hold a joint hearing focusing on cruise-ship disappearances and crimes. The hearing comes on the heels of another cruise-ship disappearance in recent months, this one aboard Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Sea, which returned to Florida on Sunday with one less passenger than when it departed.

<snip>

It is estimated that in the past two years, about a dozen people have disappeared while aboard cruise ships.

"The bottom line is we are suspicious, candidly, that there's some huge problem in the cruise industry," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. "We think that people are not aware of some of the challenges and some of the potential problems they encounter."

<snip>

The congressional hearing will also touch on last month's pirate attack on a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia.

People do that from time to time.

deserving of Congress's investigation....I wonder why they have no interest in that one?

Now that's cruise ship story that effects every American.

365 to "sun cruz" boulis and 475 to "sun cruz" abramoff.

Your posts are very coy. Why didn't you just come out and say that the Boulis murder should be included as part of the Abramoff investigation.

I hope the aren't planning on spending 79 million like they did for bill's hummer. I have an idea...
Why don't they study how many babies have died because of poor prenatal care? We could all come up with hundreds of things that need explaining before this crap. How about drunk on a ship and they fell off- We just saved a shit pile of money didn't we?

We're at risk of depopulation! Definitely worth a Congressional investigation.

pushed off by a spouse or somebody else who wanted them out of the way.

Really, folks, this is a crock.

Dear Abdul Muhammad,

Congratulations!

You've won a free vacation on-board Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Sea!

Here are your tickets.

Sincerely,

The Central Intelligence Agency
Did I say CIA? I meant to say, "Timeshare Marketing, Inc."

This could drag out for half a year.

are voluntary. Check the missing passengers' background (and their debts) before you get "suspicious" of the cruise lines.

A last ditch cruise to salvage a marriage, may not be what it seems :evilgrin:

I recommend you read it if you havn't yet.

Perrone goes overboard for her anniversary in latest Hiaasen novel

At the stroke of eleven on a cool April night, a woman named Joey Perrone went overboard from a luxury deck of the cruise liner M.V. Sun Duchess. Plunging toward the dark Atlantic, Joey was too dumbfounded to panic.

I married an asshole, she thought, knifing headfirst into the waves.

The impact tore off her silk skirt, blouse, panties, wristwatch and sandals, but Joey remained conscious and alert. Of course she did. She had been co-captain of her college swim team, a biographical nugget that her husband obviously had forgotten.

Bobbing in its fizzy wake, Joey watched the gaily lit Sun Duchess continue steaming away at twenty nautical miles per hour. Evidently only one of the other 2,049 passengers was aware of what had happened, and he wasn’t telling anybody.

Bastard, Joey thought.

:)

:rofl:


I've grown to enjoy Hiaasen's writting style, includding his news and opinion pieces for the Miami Herald.

I'm hooked on Hiaasien. (Is that spelling right? I know there's a double something in his name, but I thought it was the esses.)

sounds like a good committee to get on - wonder how many "personal" investigative trips they will get, er I mean HAVE to take.....

... in its Nov/Dec 2005 issue ...



"THE VANISHING"

How did a honey mooning 26-year-old disappear from a Mediterranean cruise? And what of the dozen others who have also vanished?

By Jay Cheshes

http://www.radaronline.com/magazine/table-of-contents.php

I'm thinking.

at the Katrina hearings last week.

another cruise-ship disappearance in recent months

Shouldn't that be "another cruise-ship passenger disappearance.. . " Sheesh.

nt

the GOP is tackling all the big issues of the day.

I hope they take on the toilet seat up or down issue next.

I don't think that one's ever been resolved, either....

nt

doesn't the international cruise lines take some medical information from passengers in case of accidents they know what blood type to give out, so such a cruise presents a supermarket of persons to the organ thieves. On the other hand I really doubt that; but it's a good angle to work the hysteria with. watch them go... best of all this will no doubt lead to much more strict surveillance of people on ships! maybe everyone who boards will have to get a tracking chip somehow?


I mean, 12 out of 20mil over two years, with some being no doubt people who want to go missing, that's not much... I wonder if they ever found those kids Jeb's child welfare people lost? I guess that doesn't warrant congress, since they're just poor people after all.

what's the rate of disappearances in the general population?

how many people set out to go visit grandma and never arrive?

how many people go on vacation to foreign countries and are never heard from again?

12 missing people in two years would be one every two months. Ooooh.... scary.

NOT!

(or from anywhere else, for that matter), I'd scream up to the highest authority I could reach.

but TWO congressional committees?

TWO?

How many looked into 9-11, or Iraq, or the levee failures, all "accidents" that cost THOUSANDS of American lives? :shrug:

I don't know why they're having two.

That said, there still might be something worth more investigation, such as piracy.

Oh, and that honeymooner? Can you say "Black Widow"? I thought you could.

A public investigation into a string of disappearances aboard luxury cruise ships was opened by the US Congress yesterday.

Spurred to action by the case of George Allen Smith IV, whose disappearance from a cruise ship on July 5 has all the ingredients of an Agatha Christie whodunnit, a congressional committee will hear evidence about at least 12 people who have vanished from liners in the past five years.

“We want to know how often this kind of thing happens,” said Christopher Shays, chairman of the National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations committee looking into cruise ship safety.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1927595,00.html

“We want to know how often this kind of thing happens,” said Christopher Shays, chairman of the National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations committee looking into cruise ship safety.

Duh, a couple of people a year???? They are probably in Gitmo, try looking there first. :rolleyes:

it kind of sounded to me like they were people who didn't like their life for whatever reason and decided to just run off and start a new life. Of course, I could be wrong (it has happened :) )

Almost happened to me a few times....

you're presumably in a beautiful location, relaxed,...why not just leave the ship and start living on some little island somewhere?
I don't think it's the great vast conspiracy they seem to be making it out to be.

To just walk away from the maddening HELL that your life has become.

Just a hunch.

sorry, that's what I meant. I'm a little inarticulate this evening.

Something else to scare us with.

that Shays has the kind of freet ime to investigate very rare events.:sarcasm:

That was HUGH!!!1111

and now i'm all worried again!!

you know on a ship at sea there's all that water around - It's not that hard to figure out what happened. The puzzle is did they jump or were they pushed? that's the hard part.

:hurts:

THis is just the thing that Geraldo and STone Phillips will exploit for one of those magazine light formats that are fed to the public.

From Jean Binnet to the Aruba blonde

I still would love to know what happened to Chandra Levey and the 2 young boys that were killed after stumbling upon a drug smuggling operation connected to the MENA operation.The mother, Linda Ives has been trying to seek justice ever since.illegal codesmilie_remote(':patriot:')

HELLO-- Geraldo or Stone to I have a story for you!:wtf: :patriot:

or maybe Negroponte, LOL!!

Btw, George Allen Smith IV doesn't sound like he might come from a wealthy family does he? :freak:

It's PEOPLE :evilgrin:

next August. Explain to him that he could get everyone on board screened, and then enjoy some fun in the sun, an open bar, the exercise facilities, and the diving (off the stern while en route).

hardly stand up. I wonder if a few have just fell overboard in a drunken stupor? And it's amazing how many of these drunks are young women.

They won't hold hearings to find out if bush lied about a war that has killed 30,000 innocent Iraqi civilians (more or less, you understand) but they will hold hearings to find out about six Americans who disappeared off cruise ships.

Man, that just says it all.




Cher

paid cruise. After all, funds from Abramhoff have dried up and they have to take their families on vacation.