Search Mounted For Missing Cruise Ship Passenger

A search has been launched in the waters of Southeast Alaska and Canada for a 67-year-old woman reported missing from a cruise ship. The passenger, who hasn't been identified, was noticed missing when she didn't leave the Sapphire Princess at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday morning. The Princess Cruise liner departed Ketchikan on Monday on an Inside Passage cruise. She was not located during a search of the ship, and her personal belongings were in her stateroom. The U.S. Coast Guard has sent a helicopter and boats to search from Ketchikan 86 miles south to include Dixon Entrance, Tongass Narrows and the northern end of Hecate Strait.Canadian officials are searching from Vancouver 517 miles north to Hecate Strait. In August, the body of a passenger aboard the Zaandam, Amber Malkuch, 45, was found off Douglas Island in Southeast Alaska. The Arlington, Wash., resident had been reported missing earlier in the day. Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters on Wednesday said the cause of death was drowning. However, she said the agency may never come to a determination if the death was accidental or a suicide, as the cruise ship company said at the time.