Singapore

A 64-year-old Indian woman, Reeta Sahani, has gone missing from a cruise ship sailing through the Strait of Singapore from Penang. 

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Reeta's husband reported the incident on Monday (July 31). The couple was returning to Singapore from Penang, the northern island state of Peninsular Malaysia, aboard the Spectrum of the Seas.

On the last day of their four-day cruise, Jakesh, 70, woke up to find Reeta missing from the room, reported The Straits Times. The retiree tried to find his wife on the cruise ship. When he could not locate her, he informed the ship's crew. They told him the cruise's overboard detection systems alerted that something had fallen from the vessel into the Singapore Strait. 

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The Singapore Strait, a busy shipping route between the Malacca Strait and the South of China Sea, is 113 kilometres long and 19 kilometres wide, with Singapore on the north. 

Apoorv Sahani, Jakesh's son, was not on the cruise ship with the couple. He said the family has no clue about his mother's current status. Apoorv, 39, also mentioned his mother could not swim. Meanwhile, the police questioned Jakesh for a few hours about the incident. "We have asked to see the CCTV footage, but so far, we have not received any information to confirm that it was her. All we know is the ship's crew thinks she jumped into the water," said Apoorv. 

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According to Apoorv, the cruise officials asked Jakesh to get off the ship because they had to prepare it for another journey. "But we still believe Reeta is on the ship, stuck somewhere," he said. The incident did not make sense to Apoorv as he said Reeta was on vacation, enjoying herself when it happened.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) issued an official statement about the incident on Monday, saying the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Singapore received the notification about the incident at about 07:50 AM.

It stated, "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."

According to the statement by MPA, the passenger was on board the Cyrpus-flagged Spectrum of the Seas and had fallen overboard. The crew berthed the vessel earlier in Singapore to aid the probe and departed at around 04:30 PM, it stated further.

The company refused to comment any further about the incident. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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