picture by OneCyclone, CC BY-SA 3.0
The Norwegian Sky had to be evacuated last week in the Port of Miami due to a boarding mishap. More than 700 passengers had to exit the vessel as one guest disobeyed boarding rules and went onboard with authorization.
Ships security called local police at 12:30 to report what happened. The regular boarding has just begun as one passenger seemed to have bypassed security checks and disappeared on board without authorization. Local police, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the FBI including units with tactical gear, asked all passengers on board to leave the ship and conducted a thorough search of the vessel.
During this process they approached multiple individuals which matched the initial description of the offender. Eventually all was deemed to be safe and boarding could resume. “We were able to talk to several people that matched the description and perhaps were involved,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta. “A through interrogation was conducted and, of course, everything was deemed to be safe.”
The mishap and subsequent search took more than 5 hours to complete, leaving passengers stranded in the terminal as a result. The ship was able to depart normally and is expected to be able to make all ports in the current sailing.