Image source, Getty Images
-
- Author, Max Matza
- Author's title, BBC News
A father jumped into the ocean to save his daughter after she fell from the fourth cover of a Disney cruise on Sunday afternoon, witnesses say.
The ship returned to the United States after a journey through the Bahamas.
Some videos show passengers, cheering when the father and daughter were rescued in a rescue boat after, apparently, they kept afloat for 10 minutes.
According to witnesses, the girl seemed to fall when her father took a photo leaning on a railing.
After a man alert was issued to the water, the crew hastened to rescue them.
“The ship moved quickly, very fast, it was incredible how quickly people became small points in the sea, and then lost sight of them,” said passenger Laura Amador.
“The captain reduced the speed of the ship and turned it around, and then they deployed an auxiliary ship with people on board to save them, and we saw how they rescued the father and the daughter,” he added to CBS News, partner of the BBC in the US.
Another passenger, Gar Frantz, told NBC News: “We saw it, you could see two dots … It was crazy, it was horrible,” and described how the two sank into the ocean and almost disappeared on the horizon.
Image source, Tracey Robinson
The Disney Dream, with capacity for 4,000 people, returned to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after sailing four days through the Bahamas.
Disney confirmed in a statement that two passengers were rescued, but offered few details about what happened.
“The Disney Dream crew quickly rescued two water passengers,” said a Disney Cruise Line spokesman.
“We congratulate our crew for their exceptional ability and rapid performance, which guaranteed the safe return of both passengers to the ship in a matter of minutes.”
The incident occurred on the last day of the cruise, and later the ship returned to Puerto in Florida.
While it is uncommon for passengers to fall from cruises, when bailouts occur, they are not usually successful.
According to an external report of the International Cruise Lines Association of 2019, 25 people fell out ofboard that year from cruises and only nine managed to be rescued.
Subscribe here To our new newsletter to receive every Friday a selection of our best content of the week.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and act.
