There’s often a big time gap between a fall and the beginning of a search. Even if crew members are notified, it can take cruise ships about 1.5 km to turn around. The cruise ship could be far out at sea, making it out of immediate reach for the Coast Guard. And in some cases, the victim isn’t reported overboard for hours (if not more) post-incident which is often far too late – hypothermia can settle in within as little as 15 minutes.

“It’s a huge ocean. Just being found at all would be incredible,” said Ross Klein, a cruise industry researcher and retired professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland to The Washington Post. “The longer you are out there, whether you’re alive or not, the lower the possibility of being recovered. The vast majority of people are gone forever.” Not to mention it could be dark with limited visibility, or bad weather with large swell and strong winds to make the process of finding someone like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Even sober, the fall itself could kill you, not to mention the cruise ship and its engine. But it’s often booze (and ‘all you can drink’ policies onboard cruise liners) which can prove to be an individual’s ultimate undoing. Alcohol is involved in up to 60 percent of overboard cases, says Klein, who states intoxication is a key reason why many victim’s can’t stay afloat until help can reach them.

The good news is that many cruise ship companies are learning from the problem. Today they are focusing on tightening formerly loose safety regulations, and integrating specially designed man-overboard systems, which use sensors or other technology to immediately detect when a person has fallen or jumped from a vessel.