JUNE 14, 2015
Members of Toronto Police marine unit search near the mouth
of the Humber River for a man who fell from a cruise ship. (STAN BEHAL, Toronto
Sun)
Toronto Police continued to cling to hope Sunday that a man
who fell into Lake Ontario from a Mariposa cruise ship was still alive.
“The water is 9C and he’s been out there since 7:30 p.m.
(Saturday), but we’re not going to presume anything because he might be hanging
on to something or he might wash up somewhere unconscious,” Const. John Liggio
said Sunday.
Police said that emergency crews arrived around 7:30 p.m.
Saturday after the captain of the Northern Spirit called for help. At the time
of the incident, the ship was cruising about three kilometres south of the
Humber River.
“We’re not going to comment whether he was drinking alcohol
or anything, but there was alcohol served on the ship,” said Liggio. “There was
people with him when he fell over.”
The Marine Unit, as well as helicopters, continued the
search up until midnight Saturday. They resumed the search Sunday at 7:30 a.m.
with “100% coverage of the area,” Liggio said.
Investigators were not releasing the man’s identity to the
public.
Neetu Godara, a marketing director for Pepsi, was aboard the
ship. She declined to speak to media on Sunday, but sent out several frantic tweets
as the incident was unfolding.
“Man fell overboard harbourfront cruise police can’t find
him Pls send help - more police needed only one boat looking!” she tweeted.
Mariposa Cruises president Jim Nicholson told media Sunday
protocols were followed and all 19 members of the ship’s crew have undergone
annual marine emergency training and take part in safety drills every two
weeks.
There were 427 guests aboard the 41-metre-long vessel, which
has a maximum capacity of about 550 passengers. There were also 10 paid
security officers present on the 400-tonne triple-decker boat.
Nicholson said a life boat was lowered into the water to
look for the missing man when three police boats quickly showed up. The life
boat halted its search at that point.
“That’s why some people were confused by that and that’s
part of protocol,” he said. “Our boat, in the report that was given to us, was
they didn’t have time to get in before the police arrived. Our boat was smaller
than what the police boats were and so, we took the boat back up and part of
protocol is we wanted to turn our boat around to where the accident happened.
As you know a big boat doesn’t stop on a dime.”
Each spring, two safety training days are performed by
compliance officers and captains, approved by Transport Canada, Nicholson said.
Mariposa has six boats in its fleet with the Northern Spirit remaining docked
on Sunday.
“In 28 years being in business, we’ve never had an incident
like this,” he said. “We pride our safety and protocol as first and foremost
and we’ve never had this happen.”
Transportation Safety Board of Canada deploys team to
Toronto, Ontario, to assess passenger falling overboard from the vessel Northern
Spirit
Québec, Quebec, 15 June 201
The Transportation
Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is deploying a team of investigators to Toronto,
Ontario, where a person fell overboard from the passenger vessel Northern
Spirit during the evening of 13 June 2015. The passenger has not been found;
the search continues. The TSB will gather information and assess the
occurrence.