The Sapphire Princess cruise ship recovered five bodies from the sea in a three-hour operation after crew spotted an orange object in the western Mediterranean on Tuesday evening. Passengers were told the ship was turning around at 6 p.m., and the first body, a man in a purple top and black shorts, was pulled into a lifeboat and brought aboard.
Footage showed medical staff examining the body before he was taken to the ship’s hold. The vessel moved off again at 6:59 p.m., but at 7:47 p.m. another orange lifejacket was spotted and a second body was brought on board. Three more bodies were later recovered before the captain announced the operation was complete.
The ship was between the coasts of Spain and North Africa and had more than 3,000 passengers on board when the recovery unfolded. Princess Cruises said the vessel observed an orange inflatable lifejacket while en route to Cartagena, Spain, immediately altered course to investigate and deployed its Fast Rescue Boat. The company said five deceased individuals were recovered by crew members in coordinated efforts with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, and that the people involved were not guests or crew of Sapphire Princess.
The incident happened during a 14-day voyage that left a port near Rome, Italy, on April 19 and was scheduled to dock in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 3. The Sapphire Princess docked in Cartagena on Wednesday. One passenger said, “It was very sad to watch. I was shaking inside.” Another said, “The crew were very good at keeping everyone calm, but everyone was shocked.” The same passenger said, “From what I saw I think they were migrants,” and added, “The crew treated them with respect and we were all offered counselling.”
The recovery leaves one hard fact beyond the ship’s routine: five people died at sea, and the cruise line’s own account points to a group that was never part of the voyage. The question now is not what the Sapphire Princess found, but what happened to those five people before the liner came upon the orange lifejacket in the Mediterranean.