Michael McConn
Submission Date: January 7, 2008
Incident Date: June 16, 2004
Bruise: Missing
Bruise Location: Virgin Islands
Age: 46
Home Town: USA
Cruise Line: Cunard Line
Ship: Queen Mary 2
Details:
Michael McConn
Cruise Ship Passenger Overboard In Virgin Islands
Cunard Line Queen Mary 2
Michelle Profant comes to Cruise Bruise with a heart-breaking story of a cruise gone wrong, and feeling helpless as the ship personnel tossed her to the side, giving her little consideration during one of life's most traumatic events.
She tells us, "On 6/16/04, Michael McConn, my boyfriend of 14 years, aged 46 disappeared off of the Queen Mary 2 outside St Thomas, US V.I.
Upon returning to the cabin after dinner, a friend and I discovered a suicide note and immediately went to the Purser's office to notify them.
Even though I advised them that he has previously been hospitalized for an attempted suicide in November 03 and again in January 04, they first questioned me extensively, offered me Valium and delayed in searching for Mike.
First there was a general announcement over the intercom asking Mike to report to the purser's office, after about 20 minutes when that didn't work, a shipboard search was conducted and I believe it was at the very least an hour if not more before the ship was turned around to search.
His body was never found.
The cruise ended three days later and during that time except for the doctor who injected me with a tranquilizer, no one from the ship contacted me.
My friend who was with me told me that, naturally, everyone on the ship was talking about it. But when disembarkation time came around, we were not offered any place private to wait. We sat in the auditorium with everyone else, embarrassed and scared.
I don't know if anyone knew who we were or not, but at the very least Cunard should have offered us a private place to wait.
While I don't know if anymore could have been done to try to save Mike, I do KNOW a lot more could have been done to help ease me through those last three days and off the ship. There seemed to be a total disregard for human compassion."
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The way this incident was handled by Cunard, is much different than another suicide case, aboard Royal Caribbean Voyager Of The Seas.
In that case the red carpet was rolled out for the family of Elizabeth Galeana when she jumped overboard. Her family were pillars of their community, owning new car dealerships in Ohio and Florida.
A senior Royal Caribbean executive and a company Guest Care Team flew out to join the ship to further assist the woman's family.
That case is here.
