A male passenger, who has not been named, allegedly jumped from the 20-deck-high Icon of the Seas after it departed from a port in Florida on Sunday for a seven-day cruise around the Caribbean, with Honduras as its first stop.
The Coast Guard told the New York Post that “the cruise ship sent out one of their rescue boats, located the man, and brought him back on board.” They said that they didn’t have much to do with the event other than helping to look for the man.
The man has since been “pronounced deceased,” the Coast Guard said.
ship Hive says that the world’s biggest ship experience was about 300 miles from PortMiami and 30 to 40 miles north of Santa Lucia, Cuba when the accident happened in the morning.
Royal Caribbean, which runs the Icon of the Seas and other very large cruise ships, told the outlet in a statement that the crew of their ship quickly called the US Coast Guard and “launched a search and rescue operation.”
For this hard time, “our care team is actively supporting and helping the guest’s loved ones,” the cruise company said. There are no more details to share because we want to protect the privacy of the guest and their family.
The ship, which can hold more than 5,000 people and only went on its first trip in January of this year, started the cruise on Saturday. But after what happened on Sunday, the cruise stopped and stayed put for about two hours while the search continued, according to the news source.
CruiseMapper says that the Icon of the Seas should get to the port of Costa Maya, Mexico, by Tuesday at noon.
A similar accident happened on the Liberty of the Seas, another Roya Caribbean cruise ship, more than a month ago. A 20-year-old man named Levion Parker is thought to have gone overboard while the ship was going around the Bahamas.
The cruise line and the US Coast Guard started a search and rescue mission right away. But after five days, they couldn’t find him, so they had to end it.
But the cruise line has also done some good rescues recently. For example, in October, they were able to get back a passenger who fell off the Symphony of the Seas.
The cruise had just left Barcelona at the time, and they said the guest was safely brought back on board after falling off soon after the ship left the port.