ruben.maritime

MIAMI 05 January – Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL) has agreed to pay the estate of George Smith IV $1.05M in a settlement following his high-profile honeymoon disappearance from the Brilliance of the Seas in July 2005. According to the agreement publicly disclosed yesterday, RCCL will pay the estate $950,000 plus $100,000 to reimburse legal expenses. The Smith estate has hired renowned "OJ trial" forensic expert Dr Henry Lee to continue the search for answers, and RCCL has agreed to turn over additional information to the estate – including logs, security reports, records, tapes, witness statements, etc – “which would never have otherwise been obtained, even in the event of a lawsuit,” said Jennifer Hagel Smith, estate administrator and George’s wife. “Reaching a settlement in no way shuts down the investigation,” she affirmed. The Smith case was significant to the cruise industry overall because it created a media frenzy that gave consumers’ negative impressions of ship safety, while spurring Congressman Chris Shays to introduce the Cruise Line Accurate Safety Statistics Act in July 2006 (a bill that died at the committee level). In at least one way, the Smith controversy did change industry practice, as cruise lines have begun to issue press releases revealing when passengers fall overboard.

Etiquetas: cruise market, cruises

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