Cruise Ship Deaths: FBI Investigating Woman’s Death Aboard Vessel In Alaska

The FBI has been investigating the death of a Utah woman aboard a Princess Cruises ship in Alaska and plan to file charges for the Wednesday incident after the cruise ship docked in Alaska’s capital city.

The U.S. attorney’s office said the announcement related to the filing of charges in the death of a 39-year-old woman aboard the Emerald Princess will be made at a news conference Thursday.

According to the Washington Post, the attorney’s office said the news conference will be conducted along with agencies that were a part of the investigation, including the FBI and the Coast guard.

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Princess Cruises said in a statement, according to ABC News that the 39-year-old woman from Utah died aboard the Emerald Princess late Tuesday and the incident stemmed from a domestic dispute. The FBI has been investigating the "suspicious" death and what happened in U.S. waters off Alaska.

The ship was docked in Juneau, capital city of Alaska on Wednesday morning. The Emerald Princess was carrying 3,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members departed on Sunday from Seattle to go on a week-long cruise.

"Since the incident, our fleet security team has been coordinating with the FBI and other local authorities," Princess Cruises said in a statement to CBS affiliate KTVA in Anchorage.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and all those impacted by this tragic event," Princess Cruises also said in a statement, ABC News reported.

FBI has jurisdiction on this case as it happened on U.S. waters. No arrests had been made yet, according to spokeswoman Staci Feger-Pellessier. A team was sent to the Alaskan capital in order to talk to the family of the victim.

Passengers were not permitted to get off the ship immediately. They were seen taking photos of Gastineau Channel and Juneau from the decks and balconies of the cruise ship, which was diverted to the capital city of Alaska because of the investigation. The ship was scheduled to leave late Wednesday for its destination to the southeast Alaskan town of Skagway. There were no changes to the schedule, according to Company spokeswoman Kamali, CBS News reported.

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Deaths on board cruise ships have occurred in the past. There are an estimated 200 passenger deaths a year, around the world. However, the total excludes the ones who die going overboard, if a passenger intends on suicide or it is a result of being under the influence of alcohol, according to the Telegraph.

In December 2011, Shirley McGill, 55, from Winnetka, California, was beaten and strangled to death in a cruise ship by her husband during a heated argument between the couple. They were on a five night-long cruise to Mexico. Her husband later received a life sentence for the crime, Sandiego Union Tribune had reported.

All deaths on board are not just among passengers and some are tragic accidents too. In December 2014, one crew member and two contractors were killed when a massive fire broke out on Oceania Cruises' ship called Insignia. Five years ago, three crew members died when the then Costa Europa cruise ship was said to have hit a dock in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.

Majority of deaths occur due to age-related illnesses as the average age of cruise passengers would be 57 years and 40 percent of them are aged 65 and above, according to the Telegraph. A death aboard a cruise ship is made in an announcement saying "Operation Rising Star" that means a passenger has died.