Man falls from cruise ship, found clinging to buoy

[RamboLiberal]

A man who fell from a cruise ship Monday morning was rescued after he was found clinging to a buoy, nearly three hours after he went overboard.

According to reports, at 4 a.m. Monday, Larry Miller, 46, fell overboard from the Carnival Inspiration as it was returning to the Port of Tampa.

The crew of a pilot boat found Miller clinging to a buoy in the shipping channel near the Sunshine Skyway shortly before 7 a.m.

Miller was taken to the Fort DeSoto boat ramp, where an emergency vehicle picked him up and took him to Bayfront Medical Center. He was treated for minor injuries.

A spokesperson for Carnival said Miller fell overboard when he climbed on a railing to get a better view of a boat as it passed by. He slipped, then fell overboard.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/6/15/484881.html

Nobody on the ship immediately reported the passenger missing, and the line reportedly wasn't aware of the incident until it got word of the rescue.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=68134663.blog

He's lucky. Seems I read a story every month or two of someone who disappears off a cruise ship never to be found. Wonder if they have to idiot-proof their rails. And I wonder if some are suicides.

[virgogal]

1. If he climbed onto a railing he's a moron.

[Orrex]

4. I went on a cruise to Bermuda in 1989 with members of my graduating high school class

One night around midnight two of them got profoundly drunk, climbed and stood on the railing, and pissed over the side.

I was the only witness, and I was about 40 yards away when it happened. If they'd dropped over the side no one would even have known they were missing for at least eight hours.

[RamboLiberal]

7. I think that is what is happening in most of these cases

Drinking and doing stupid stunts on the rails. Of course a couple may be murders by either the partner they came on the ship with or a crew member.

[virgogal]

9. God,they were lucky.

[Warpy]

11. They all want to be Di Caprio in "Titanic"

Booze helps the whole thing along.

[kestrel91316]

16. He might have been a drunk moron at the time......

[Statistical]

2. The rails are pretty high.

Unless they want to build floor to ceiling security cages I don't see how.

Nobody falls off a cruise ship unless they are doing something stupid, trying to kill themselves, or someone is trying to kill them.

[RamboLiberal]

3. That's what I meant by idiot proofing

Of course then a better idiot will be invented.

And no I'm not advocating for cruise ships to do this.

[Thothmes]

13. Nothing is idot proof

Idiots are so ingenious.

[Dennis Donovan]

5. That's a pretty long drop - he's lucky to be alive...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAlXgodWAM&NR=1 :evilgrin:

[mitchum]

6. Until I noticed the "u" in the last word, I thought Limbaugh had been on a cruise

[Orrex]

18. Win.

[valerief]

8. What a moron. Someone should have kept the dolt on a lease. nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. Perhaps he was a rental. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

10. Bloody paedophiles

go to endless lengths sometimes.

[timeforpeace]

12. Buoy. Not boy. Clinging to a buoy.

[Mari333]

15. LOL

[petronius]

17. I'd be willing to bet that a non-trivial number of them are spur-of-the-moment suicides

Travel can be stressful, and mix in alcohol and a fight with your partner and suicide might make 'sense' (at least until you hit the water). If I was ranking causes, my WAG would be that drunken idiocy is far-and-away the leading cause, followed by suicide, followed by partner-murder...