Princess Cruises has reported that a 72-year-old male passenger is believed to have gone overboard from the Ruby Princess as the vessel approached its scheduled arrival in San Francisco CA early Monday morning, December 2nd.
The ship, returning from a 5-day round-trip cruise to Ensenada (Mexico) that departed on November 27th, docked at ~6:50 a.m. Thorough searches of the vessel and a comprehensive review of security footage conducted by the crew were unable to locate the missing individual. Based on the findings, the incident is now being classified as a man overboard.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has assumed leadership of the investigation, and Princess Cruises has confirmed its full cooperation with the authorities.
Search efforts led by the USCG/Coast Guard have been underway. Initial air support was dispatched at ~3:00 p.m. from Sacramento via a C-27 aircraft to survey an area ~45 miles off Monterey’s coast. A second unit, a helicopter from San Francisco, joined the operation an hour later.
As of 5:40 p.m., Coast Guard officials indicated that the missing individual had not been located and discussions were ongoing about potentially suspending the search unless new leads emerge.
The Ruby Princess remained on schedule for her next voyage, a 16-day itinerary to the Hawaiian Islands, which departed later Monday evening.
For more Ruby Princess incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.