The Double Cruise Ship Disappearance Of Hue Pham and Hue Tran
WikiEK/Wikimedia CommonsHue Pham and Hue Tran vanished from the Carnival Cruise Line ship Destiny in 2005.
For Mother’s Day, Hue Pham and Hue Tran’s children gave them the gift of a cruise trip. They boarded the Carnival cruise ship Destiny in May 2005 — and vanished somewhere between the islands of Barbados and Aruba.
According to The Guardian, the couple — who had been married for 49 years — had overcome great adversity before. They fled their native Vietnam in the waning days of the Vietnam War, spent two weeks adrift in the South China Sea, and managed to settle in the United States, where they built a new life.
“They worked very hard since we came here 30 years ago, retired and lived happily in Southern California,” their son, Son Michael Pham, told NBC Los Angeles, noting that his parents “deserved” the cruise ship gift.
But on May 12, 2005, Hue Pham, 71, and Hue Tran, 67, vanished from the ship.
YouTubeA grainy photo of the missing couple Hue Pham and Hue Tran.
As Son Michael Pham told NBC Los Angeles, his parents went missing from the ship as it sailed toward Aruba. They left scant evidence behind. On the deck, he explained, searchers found “[b]oth my parents’ sandals, my mom’s purse, and the book she was reading” but no trace of the missing couple.
Writing for International Cruise Victims, the missing couples’ children accused Carnival Cruise Lines of being “more focused on planning the next day’s shore activities… [than] protecting crucial information and evidence pertaining to 2 of their missing passengers… Our parents!”
Son Michael Pham additionally claimed that the cruise line was uncooperative, though Carnival denies this. He doesn’t believe that his parents would have taken their own lives, and he has since testified to Congress about lax safety practices aboard cruise ships.
“[They were] two American citizens with no personal or financial problems, no serious health problems, living the happiest time of their lives, both vanished without a trace or witness,” he told The Guardian.
