Singapore—A 74-year-old retiree vanished from a cruise ship to Penang. While he is believed to have died at sea, his family believes that there is still a chance that he can be found.
Goh Hai Peng boarded the Genting Dream on August 4. The cruise, which lasted four days and three nights, stopped at Penang on August 5 and Langkawi the following day.
The ship’s operator, Dream Cruises, has confirmed that Mr Goh is missing.
The New Paper (TNP) reports that when passengers left the boat on August 7, the crew noticed that Mr Goh was not there. The retired electrician had, in fact, not been seen since he boarded the boat on the first day of the cruise.
All of his personal items were found in his cabin and have been returned to his family.
Video footage from surveillance cameras onboard the Genting Dream showed Mr Goh going into his cabin at around 7:00 in the evening of August 4. There is no other sighting of Mr Goh on the ship’s videos, and no video evidence that he even left his cabin, which opens to a balcony.
TNP reports Adrian Goh, the missing man’s son, as saying that the cameras had caught on video an image of a whitish figure falling into the sea at 3:00 am on August 5.
But Mr Adrian Goh also told Chinese daily news Lianhe Wanbao that it was difficult to believe that his father, a short man, would fall into the sea.
According to the missing man’s son, Mr Goh had no health or financial problems, and that he was not a drinker or a gambler either. There is also no record of him entering into the casino onboard the Genting Dream.
Adrian Goh said that the retired electrician had meant to go on the cruise with his wife, who stayed home instead to take care of their grandchild.
He added, “I believe he would not have done anything silly.”
The family, Adrian Goh said, is profoundly distressed that their father has gone missing.
He was unhappy that it was not until a week had passed that Dream Cruises gave the family access to the extent of the search and rescue operations or even footage from the surveillance cameras aboard the ship.
“For all we know, our father could still be alive and adrift somewhere in the Malacca Strait (sic), and it seems as if he had been left for dead.”
Mr Goh made an appeal for his father to be found, “We urge the relevant parties and authorities to step up their efforts to find our father.”
Authorities both in Malaysia and Singapore have been helping the Goh family, including the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.
Dream Cruises told TNP, ”Dream Cruises offers its heartfelt thoughts and sympathies to the family members of the missing person in this time of difficulty.
Dream Cruises is working closely with the respective authorities and will inform the family members should there be any updates from the authorities on the reported incident.”/ TISG