Filipino Norwegian Cruise Line crewman missing at sea off Chile

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A Filipino crew man went overboard and is missing from the Norwegian Sun cruise ship.

SAN FRANCISCO–Chilean authorities are investigating the disappearance of a Filipino crew member who went overboard from NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) cruise ship Norwegian Sun February 16.

The NCL crew member is identified as Dominic Santiago Gubertino, age 55, according to the Crew Center website. The Norwegian Sun was apparently not equipped with an automatic man overboard system that would automatically notify the bridge of the crew member going over the rails of the cruise ship.

Crew Center said that “upon the arrival in Chacabuco, co-workers realized that Gubertino was not on board, and security officers reviewed the CCTV cameras showing that he went overboard at 6:41 a.m. on February 16.

Norwegian Sun officers said it was not until 9:45 a.m. that they realized the crew member was missing and mobilized all crew members to find out if Gubertino was on board.”

A prosecutor later boarded the cruise ship to investigate this tragic event.

A representative of the Chilean Navy was quoted saying,”At around 10:40 information was received by Norwegian Sun that a crew of Filipino nationality went overboard which was verified by checking security cameras.”

This means the cruise ship did not report the crew member going overboard for over an hour after they verified that he disappeared.  At this point, there was already a three hours delay in determining that he went overboard.

This was not the first time that a NCL crew member disappeared at sea or that the cruise line “unreasonably delayed” either realizing that a crew member went overboard or reporting it Crew Center stated.

Last July, several NCL crew members reported that a crew member aboard the Norwegian Sun went overboard while the Sun was proceeding to Juneau, Alaska.

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