Elderly Indian woman goes missing from Singapore cruise ship

Singapore, Aug 1

A 64-year-old Indian woman has gone missing from a cruise ship that was on its way back to Singapore from Penang, an island off the Malay Peninsula in the Strait of Malacca.

Reeta Sahani who was onboard the Spectrum of the Seas was found missing by her husband Jakesh Sahani, 70, sometime in the middle of the night, The Strait Times reported.

On the last day of the four-day cruise on Monday, a worried Jakesh informed the ship’s crew that he is unable to locate his wife.

The crew told him later that the ship’s overboard detection systems had been alerted that something had fallen from the vessel into the Singapore Strait -- a 113 km-long channel between the Strait of Malacca in the west and the South China Sea in the east.

The couple's son, Apoorv Sahani who was not on the cruise, told The Straits Times that the family is still in the dark about his mother’s current status.

He said his mother could not swim, and that his father was made to go through an interview with the police that lasted a few hours.

“We’ve asked to see the CCTV footage, but so far we’ve not received anything yet for us to confirm that it was her. All we know is that the ship’s crew thinks she jumped,” Apoorv told the newspaper.

“Eventually my father was told to get down from the ship because there was another cruise that was going to take place, but we think she may still be on the ship, stuck somewhere,” he said.

In a statement issued on Monday night, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Singapore was notified about the incident at about 7:50 am.

“MRCC Singapore is coordinating the search and immediately issued navigational safety broadcast to vessels in the Singapore Strait and vessels in port to keep a lookout for the missing person and report any sightings to MRCC Singapore,” the statement read.

It added that the vessel was berthed earlier in Singapore to support the investigations and had departed at around 4:30 pm.

A spokesman for Royal Caribbean, which operates the vessel, told The Times that the incident was reported to local authorities immediately.

The company didn't comment further, citing the privacy of the guest and their family, but said its team is offering support and assistance to them.