Viking Star: Crew Member Overboard in Mediterranean

Once the alarm was raised, the Viking Star crew immediately initiated the emergency protocol, demonstrating professional training by the personnel. Eyewitnesses, including passengers, confirmed that the response was swift and coordinated:

• A large, orange life ring was immediately thrown into the water from the ship’s port side (left).
• This was quickly followed by another marker—a smaller ring with a light buoy or signaling device—to precisely mark the location of the incident.
• The ship itself immediately began an extensive internal search operation, turning to slowly circle the search area.

The ship’s search lasted six and a half hours, until approximately 6:00 PM. Since the probability of survival decreases significantly after such a long time, and the intensive search in daylight was unsuccessful, the Viking Star ceased its immediate action. By handing over responsibility to the Italian Coast Guard, the cruise line fulfilled its legal duty to render assistance. As a direct consequence of the six-and-a-half-hour search delay, the original itinerary of the 14-day voyage had to be adjusted. To minimize the time loss, the planned port call in Palermo was canceled, and the city of Messina in Sicily was scheduled instead. This allowed the ship to mitigate the delay before reaching the next destination (Naples).

Viking Cruises confirmed the incident in a brief statement, expressing deep regret and assuring support for the crew member’s family—a standard procedure within crisis management. The incident is reported to have originated from Deck 2 of the vessel. Since this deck is very low and often houses crew cabins or work areas, the investigation presumes the accident is linked to the crew member’s duties.

As this involves an employee, the investigation falls under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC, 2006). The competent authorities will now examine whether safety regulations were observed and if the working environment on this low-lying deck was adequately secured. Although the crew’s reaction was swift and by the book, the tragic realization remains that even the best manual procedures have their limits. A critical point in the modern cruise industry is the likely absence of automatic "Man Overboard" (MOB) detection systems.

These modern systems use radar or advanced video analysis to instantly recognize the event, precisely record the GPS coordinates, and thus save valuable minutes in the initial phase of the rescue—minutes during which the person can drift significantly. Sole reliance on human sighting and manually deployed markers is considered an outdated practice. In light of the statistic of 428 documented overboard incidents worldwide since the year 2000, experts urge the maritime industry to make such automatic MOB systems mandatory to significantly increase the probability of survival and reduce the legal liability of operators.