In the last 30 days, a third person has gone overboard from a cruise ship. This time, a 59-year-old guest named Kenneth Schwalbe disappeared while on the Emerald Princess cruise ship from Princess Cruises and is assumed to be dead.
He was last seen on August 10th at 8:30 pm and was reported missing the next morning. After reviewing surveillance footage from the ship, police officers noticed a man falling from deck 9 at 4:18 am on Friday. Deck 9, also known as the dolphin deck, has open balconies and is only available to guests who book its adjoining suites.
Authorities believe the person in the video is the missing passenger.
The Emerald Princess cruise ship was on a 16-night Hawaiian Islands itinerary when an incident occurred. It had left Los Angeles on August 5th and was scheduled to stop at Hilo, Honolulu, Nawiliwili, and Lahaina before heading back to the mainland and stopping at Ensenada. However, due to the wildfire devastation on Maui, the stop at Lahaina was changed to Kona.
Recovery efforts in Lahaina will take a significant amount of time as much of the historic area was destroyed. The ship was set to arrive back in Los Angeles on August 21st.
