PRINCESS CRUISE LINE ALLEGEDLY IGNORES STRANDED FISHERMEN

[Cruise Line Update, Tuesday, May 15, 2012]

Carnival Corporation, owners of the tragic cruise ship "Costa Concordia", as well as subsidiary Princess Cruise Line's "Star Princess", has new problems.

The cruise company is investigating allegations by three of its bird-watching passengers that employees of the "Star Princess" ignored the passengers' pleas to rescue 3 stranded-at-sea Panamanian fishermen adrift in the Pacific Ocean in March of this year.

Two of the 3 young men died of exposure and dehydration on the small boat that started out to sea from Rio Hato, Panama on February 24th, 2012.

The survivor, 18-year-old hotel worker Adrian Vasquez, survived for 28 days aboard his 10-foot boat, named the "Fifty Cents".

Nine days after he had to push his 2 friends' dead bodies overboard, Vasquez was rescued near the Galapagos Islands. While all three men were still alive and saw the "Star Princess" pass them, they thought they were saved. But the cruise ship kept going despite the men's frantic waving at it.

Vasquez was eventually rescued by other fishermen working off another ship, the "Duarte V".

It is expected that a lawsuit has been filed, or will be filed, against the Carnival Corporation in Miami, Florida.

[overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/news/2012/04/18]