Drunk Man Jumps Off Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship in Front of Horrified Family Members
A luxurious Caribbean cruise suddenly took a nightmarish turn late Thursday night on the Royal Caribbean ship Liberty of the Seas. Shortly after 4 am on April 4, US Coast Guard teams were summoned to help Liberty of the Seas with an emergency search and rescue after a guest went overboard. According to eyewitnesses, the victim did not fall accidentally, but jumped overboard in a seemingly spur-of-the-moment decision - right in front of his horrified family.
Though the victim's identity has not been publicly shared, New York Post described him as a 20-year-old man, accompanied by his brother and father at the time of the accident. The Royal Caribbean ship was sailing between Cuba and Grand Inagua Island in the Bahamas when the 20-year-old suddenly, inexplicably, jumped overboard.
Eyewitness Bryan Sims, who had hung out with the victim moments before, described the incident to The Post as "insane" and "surreal."
"I had hung out with him and his brother in the hot tub until 3:30... he was pretty drunk," said Sims. As they departed the hot tub, Sims said the man's brother and dad approached them, his dad "fussing at him for being drunk."
"When we got to them, he said to his dad, 'I'll fix this right now.' And he jumped out the window in front of us all," Sims told The Post.
There was instant pandemonium as the ship's crew immediately commenced search and rescue efforts. The US Coast Guard also arrived on the scene, and according to Royal Caribbean, they have since taken over the search.
Though there haven't been any promising updates yet, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard told the Daily Mail this morning that they still consider their mission a rescue operation. For the sake of the man, his horrified family, and the traumatized witnesses that night, we hope that the mission will be a successful one.
Going Overboard on a Cruise Ship
Going overboard on a cruise ship is rare. Modern cruise ships are equipped with preventative features like high railings that make simply "falling" overboard nigh-impossible without standing on furniture or climbing the railings. Sadly, when passengers do go overboard, it's often (though not always) intentional - be it a suicide attempt, a drunken dare, or, as in the case of the incident on Liberty of the Seas, an inexplicable impulse decision.
Tragically, even when the crew immediately begins search and rescue efforts, the victim's likelihood of survival is not good. According to statistics from Cruise Lines International Association, there were 212 overboard incidents between 2009-2019; an average of about 19 incidents per year. Of these, only 48, or 28.2%, resulted in a successful rescue. Time and tide are literally working against rescuers, and it's incredibly difficult to spot a single person in a vast sea, especially at night, which is often when these incidents happen.
Luckily, there is hope. According to Business Insider, of nine overboard incident victims in 2023, two were rescued - and both were Royal Caribbean passengers. The odds are not good, but that doesn't mean that everyone on the ship (including guests, who will often search from their own balconies as well) doesn't do their utmost to locate them in time. Against the odds, we hold out hope that luck will prevail in this story, too.
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