A beautiful sea day aboard the 78,340-gross-ton Vision of the Seas by Royal Caribbean has turned into a nightmare as passengers aboard have reported a code OSCAR in progress.
At approximately 1 p.m. EST on December 17, 2024, the vessel began turning around as the alert went out across the ship. Code OSCAR, repeated three times, means a person has fallen overboard.
“Currently on the Vision in a man overboard situation for the last hour and 45 minutes,” a guest aboard the ship shared on a public Vision of the Seas Facebook page. “Very sad. Rescue boat is out looking.”
Another passenger shared a photo of the rescue team searching the seas in small orange rescue boats while another said officials on the ship said they will “stay and search for at least 5 hours.”
Cruise Hive’s ship tracker shows the ship was at sea in the Atlantic Ocean, east of the Bahamas and southwest of Bermuda, when the vessel did a U-turn.
On the tail end of a 12-night Southern Caribbean cruise that had departed from Baltimore on December 7, 2024, the 2,514-guest Vision of the Seas was on the second of three final sea days.
The ship had three earlier sea days en route to the Caribbean, where it called in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands; Philipsburg; St. Maarten; Castries, St. Lucia; Roseau, Dominica; and Basseterre, St. Kitts on the roundtrip itinerary.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) conducts search and rescue assistance in coordination with the US Coast Guard in the Bahamas, while Bermuda Maritime Operations handles Bermuda rescues, but it is not known at this time if additional rescue teams have been called and from which region
Rescue teams have the ability to send search-and-rescue aircraft to help located a person from a higher vantage point.
Recent Overboard Incidents
There has been a wave of passengers overboard on cruise ships in 2024. Earlier in the month, a 72-year-old male guest aboard Princess Cruises’ Ruby Princess went missing somewhere before the ship returned to port on December 2, 2024.
Although the passenger had not been reported missing until the morning of the cruise’s end, the incident may have taken place in international waters and is under investigation with US Customs and Border Protection.
In October, a firefighter vacationing on a voyage in the Caribbean came to the rescue of another passenger who fell overboard during a call in Roatan, Honduras.
As an unidentified Royal Caribbean ship was in port on a 7-night journey from Galveston, Texas, the firefighter’s quick actions helped saved the life of the also unidentified passenger.
Sadly, a guest passed away after falling overboard during an MSC Cruise in June. The cruise line’s MSC Euribia was sailing off the coast of Norway in frigid waters when the man, reported to be in his late 50s, went overboard and was pulled from the water by rescue teams that included a helicopter and an air ambulance, as well as civilian boats, a fire boat, and an ambulance boat.
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, known as SOLAS, provides procedures for emergencies, including how to conduct quick and effective responses.
Passengers on Vision of the Seas are unfortunately learning first-hand how rescues are conducted, beginning with an immediate alert and alarm, followed by the need to return the vessel to the scene of the incident to begin rescue operations.
This is the second time in less than a year that the vessel has experienced a passenger overboard. Last December 23, 2023, a 41-year-old male passenger went overboard off the coast of Charleston. He was never recovered.
