Florida senator angered by cruise ship's ordeal in hurricane-force winds

Local travel agent Scott Lara says he was in 40-foot waves when he was in the U.S. Navy and could only imagine what passengers were feeling.

"It's scary, and you think you're going to die," Lara said.

Some passengers took to Twitter. One person wrote, 'Don't think I ever missed land this much. In other news, wish I took those swimming lessons.'"

Lara says cruise ships monitor the weather very closely. In this case, they should have made a different decision.

"Clearly, they should've looked at it closer, and maybe made a change," Lara said.

On Monday, Action News Jax told you how Sen. Bill Nelson wants the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the cruise line's decision to sail into hurricane-force winds in the first place.

Nelson compared this incident and the deadly El Faro incident, where 33 people died as the ship sailed into the path of Hurricane Joaquin.

"A few months later, the same thing is happening again," Nelson said. "This time, with 4,000 people on board instead of 33." 

Lara says no one died in this most recent incident and didn't think the two incidents should be compared, but Nelson said he wants answers about why this happened.

"We need new warnings to captains of ships," Nelson said. "It's putting lives in jeopardy." 

Cox Media Group