A mom is missing after she fell off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship Monday during a voyage from Malaysia to Singapore, officials said.
Reeta Sahani, 64, was vacationing with her husband, Jakesh Sahani, 70, on the Spectrum of the Seas when he woke up in the middle of the night and noticed his wife was missing, the Straits Times reported.
The vessel’s overboard detection system revealed that something had gone overboard and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre was notified about 7:50 a.m. Monday that a passenger “had fallen overboard in the Singapore Strait,” according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
“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 MPA said in a statement.
The massive Spectrum of the Seas, which can carry up to about 4,900 passengers, was returning from a four-day round-trip cruise to Malaysia, according to CruiseMapper.
The couple’s son, Apoorv Sahani, 39, who was not aboard, told the Straits Times that his mother could not swim.
He has disputed suspicions that his mother jumped overboard — and believes she could even be “stuck” somewhere on the ship.
“We’ve asked to see the CCTV (closed-circuit television) 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,” he told the Straits Times in a phone call Monday night.
“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 added.
“She was on a holiday enjoying herself and then this whole thing happened. It doesn’t make sense.”
The couple are both from India.
“The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and launched a search and rescue operation. The shipboard team is working with local authorities, and our Care team is now offering assistance and support to the family,” Royal Caribbean told The Post in an email.
“Out of privacy for the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share,” the company added. “Spectrum of the Seas sailed as scheduled Monday evening.”
In June, a 42-year-old woman was rescued after she fell off the 10th-floor deck of Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas about 25 miles south of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic during a trip from Florida.
