A young man died after falling from a balcony onto the lower deck of a cruise ship that was leaving Florida for the Bahamas.
Digital media TMZ reported that the incident occurred on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship last Saturday, forcing doctors on board to request blood donations while the ship returned to take the victim to a hospital, where he eventually died.
That day, a 16-year-old boy died after falling from one of the balconies of the ship Allure of the Seas, which was sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida, to Nassau, the Bahamas.
Authorities have not revealed whether the fall was accidental.
A passenger told the media that great efforts were made to save his life and that passengers were encouraged to donate blood in the medical tent, but the teenager died upon arrival at the hospital.
A Royal Caribbean representative said they were “saddened to learn of the death of a guest and our condolences go out to the family. Out of respect for them, we will not make any further comments,” he told the aforementioned media.
Images obtained by TMZ show the roped off balcony of the cruise ship and a tent protecting the spot where the young man fell.
A passenger in June She was rescued alive after falling into the sea from the deck of a cruise ship in the Caribbean; But in April, a passenger on a Virgin Voyages cruise ship fell from her balcony onto a lower deck died shortly afterwards before the ship left the port of Miami.
Tens of millions of people vacation on cruise ships every year without incident. But experts warn that a combination of manageable risks and lax safety standards is leading to an increase in deaths on board ships.
In a 2020 study, a professor examined more than 620 deaths on cruise ships from 2000 to the end of 2019. Many of them were suicides, others were crimes, and another group were considered the result of accidents. Dozens of them are still under investigation.
The FBI announced last year that it was investigating the suspicious deaths of several U.S. citizens as well as “certain crimes on the high seas” aboard cruise ships.