Topics: Travel, World News, Royal Caribbean
The son of a woman who remains missing after falling overboard on her Royal Caribbean cruise has expressed the belief she might actually be 'stuck' on the ship.
Jakesh Sahani had been on board the four-day Royal Caribbean cruise with his wife, Reeta Sahani, when he woke up in the early hours of 31 July to find his wife missing from their room.
The boat, the Spectrum of the Seas, was making its way from Penang, Malaysia to Singapore at the time, and after Jakesh reported his missing wife to crew he learned that the vessel’s overboard detection systems had detected that something had fallen from the ship into the Singapore Strait.
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The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore released a statement to say that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) had been notified that 'a passenger onboard a Cyprus-flagged passenger vessel, Spectrum of the Seas, had fallen overboard in the Singapore Strait while enroute into Singapore'.
"MRCC Singapore is coordinating the search and immediately issued navigational safety broadcast to vessels in the Singapore Strait and vessels in port to keep a lookout for the missing person and report any sightings to MRCC Singapore," the statement continued.
Though the authority indicated belief that a passenger had fallen overboard, Reeta's son Apoorv pointed out the family have 'not received anything yet' to confirm that it was his mother who had fallen from the ship.
“We’ve asked to see the CCTV footage, but so far we’ve not received anything yet for us to confirm that it was her. All we know is that the ship’s crew thinks she jumped,” he said.
Apoorv added that his mom, who was from India, could not swim.
Jakesh stayed on the ship in the hope of finding his wife for as long as he could but eventually he had to leave to make way for a fresh wave of cruise passengers.
However, the family remain hopeful. Apoorv said: "We think she may still be on the ship, stuck somewhere.
"She was on a holiday enjoying herself and then this whole thing happened. It doesn’t make sense."
A spokesperson from Royal Caribbean said the incident was immediately report to local authorities, and said its team is offering support and assistance to the family.
“Out of privacy for the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share,” the company added. “Spectrum of the Seas sailed as scheduled Monday evening.”
UNILAD has contacted Royal Caribbean for further comment.
