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Posted on 05/17/2006 8:24:01 PM PDT by beezdotcom
MIAMI
A passenger reported missing on a cruise to the Bahamas fell overboard after a night of heavy drinking with friends, authorities said Wednesday as Coast Guard crews suspended their search for the man.
Friends of Daniel DiPiero, 21, of Canfield, Ohio, last saw him on the Mariner of the Seas around midnight Sunday, Petty Officer Dana Warr said.
About two hours later, shipboard security cameras show DiPiero falling overboard from a rail near the front of the ship, investigators said.
He was reported missing Monday morning when his friends realized he had not slept in the cabin they shared. Royal Caribbean International notified the Coast Guard after searching the ship and Coco Cay, an island owned by the cruise line.
Vessels and aircraft from the U.S. and Bahamian Coast Guards searched 900 square miles of ocean between Grand Bahama Island and Coco Cay. The ship had departed from Port Canaveral.
Investigators from the FBI and the Coast Guard interviewed DiPiero's companions, other travelers and crew members Wednesday aboard the ship, the company said.
They found that DiPiero and his friends concealed liquor in mouthwash bottles and brought a bottle of rum in their luggage. The friends videotaped themselves drinking the alcohol Sunday afternoon, and DiPiero continued drinking until midnight, investigators said.
"Our thoughts and prayers remain with the young man's family and friends during this difficult time," company spokesman Michael Sheehan said.
I was that age 30 years ago. When I look back at some of the really dumb stuff I did at that age, I should have been dead a few dozen times over. By the grace of God, I'm still here, and I would like to think that I've learned from my mistakes.
..or takin' a whizz. Watching it fall...moving water....vertigo.....Geronimo. That's why you'll never see the vid.
The cruise ships care more than you'd think. They make their money on the casino and bars.
When passengers brink liquor onboard, it's like bringing in candy to a movie theater.
They don't do much to prevent customers from bringing alcohol ON the ship and they probably won't cut off a passenger in the bar but they do care about the $$$.
You would think this is a joke, and that fraternization of this type is prohibited by the cruise lines, but you'd be wrong.
I read an article about this not long ago, and in most cases a crewman on a ship is free to fool around with the passengers as long as he doesn't cause any trouble. In fact, considering the number of single women that go on cruises, the ship owners probably find this policy helpful both in selling cruises and in recruiting crew.
The problem is that there are a great many crewmen from Turd World countries where they think any woman who doesn't wear a burka is a harlot, begging to be raped. Also, there are a certain number of criminals that slip through the net. It's rare, but women do get raped and people do get pushed overboard on cruises.
-ccm
Cruise ships are a good way at seeing how the rest of the world does things.
In America, we are used to mall security and theme park security monitoring our every move. Some people figure that if they pay a thousand dollars for a vacation, they're going to have someone watching them with a safety harness but that isn't always the case.
At the same time, why hunt for a man overboard if you aren't going to monitor the cameras live? If you don't respond within minutes, he's a goner anyway.
I once fell of a balcony at Myrtle Beach, or so I was told...
LOL....I fell off the roof of my house last Thanksgiving, but please don't ask what I was doing up there.
I think a lot of us can relate (though most won't admit it!) My kids are this age and are responsible people. But I'd hate to think a slip in their judgement would mark them as a complete idiot. Good kids can make bad mistakes. It's sad, nothing funny about it.
No.
I am convinced that, for reasons known only to Himself, God looked out for me. (For which I continue to be thankful).
He's found a home in Davey Jones' locker
Well, I wasn't addressing you, but hey, you addressed me, so I'll say something. I have no doubt that "God looked out" for you when you were young and foolish and vulnerable...but the corollary to that, in this discusssion, is that God turned his back on this unfortunate young man. I seriously doubt that.
The young man made his choices, and for whatever reason God let him suffer the consequences.
I did not mean to imply that God turned his back on the young man, whose possible future we will never know and might have otherwise included a long life of abject misery or murder and mayhem had it not been cut short.
None knows his own time, nor do I pretend to know God's plan for even myself, much less others.
As it is, God has provided an object lesson to those who would emulate the young man's behaviour, sad as that may be. Hopefully some good will come of it.
The Bermuda Triangle strikes again.
That song didn't sound familiar to me at all - are your sure it was from the Hungry i? I remember a later Kingston Trio song "Early in the Morning" - but it wasn't this one.
It had a line about "when you lift your eyes and ... see the sun a-risin' ... on the far horizon ... early in the mornin' (early in the mornin')". Which album, I can't quite say.
My wife and I have been on many cruises, the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Pacific. We always get a cabin with a balcony.
At night on a calm sea it's wonderful to sit out there, miles and miles of black inky sea. The rail comes up about 48 inches, easy to lean on with your elbows.
In rough seas, however, the balcony gets wet, sea spray makes everything slippery. On two occaisions, when the ship breaks through a big swell I have been thrown against the rail once hard enough to bruise my hip. A scary moment to be sure!
One hand for the ship, one hand for you!
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