Six Passengers Announced a Shipwreck at 6 A.M. Then Police Boarded.

The Announcement Nobody Expected to Hear

At 6:30 in the morning on July 30, while most passengers aboard the MSC Divina were still asleep, six people gained unauthorized access to the ship’s public address system. The announcement they made was one no cruise passenger is prepared to hear: the captain had lost control of the vessel, and a shipwreck was imminent.
The ship was sailing from Marmaris, Turkey, toward Naples, Italy, in the open Mediterranean. The false announcement reached the common areas of two decks before other passengers began reporting it to the crew.

Two Cabins. Six Passengers. One Plan.

The six were Italian nationals traveling in two adjacent cabins. Italian Coast Guard investigators, who boarded the ship when it reached Naples, traced the announcements back to both cabins and determined the group was working together.
Their motivation has not been disclosed, and no injuries were reported. But for the passengers who woke to a ship-wide emergency announcement at 6:30 in the morning, the experience was not a minor one.

‘The Captain Has Lost Control’

The announcements included two claims: that the captain had lost control and that a shipwreck was coming. Delivered over the same PA system used for legitimate safety instructions, those statements were enough to cause what Italian authorities described as public alarm.
Passengers reported the incident to the Operations Center of the General Command of the Port Authority of Rome, part of the Italian Coast Guard. When the MSC Divina arrived in Naples, officers from the Naples Border Police and the Coast Guard boarded and began an investigation.

MSC Says Nothing Was Hacked

MSC Cruises said in a statement that ‘at no point were any of the ship’s systems hacked or compromised, including any computer systems,’ and that the situation was resolved immediately. The company said it had since put new measures in place to prevent unauthorized PA access.
The six passengers were identified, removed from the ship, and handed over to judicial authorities. Italian authorities said they face charges of unauthorized access to a communications system and causing public alarm. The passengers have not been convicted and are presumed innocent.

Judicial Proceedings in Naples

The six remained in Italian judicial proceedings as of early August, and no trial date has been announced. Authorities did not release their names.
The MSC Divina, one of the largest ships in the MSC fleet, can carry more than 4,300 passengers. The rest continued to Naples and disembarked as scheduled. What the six intended to accomplish at 6:30 in the morning, on a ship at sea with nowhere to go, has not been explained.

References: Cruise Passengers Arrested in Italy for Fake Emergency Announcement Over Ship’s PA System | Six MSC Divina Passengers Face Charges After Unauthorized PA Announcements

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