Over the past week, many sources that cover Disney have been blowing up the news of a father who jumped overboard from the Disney Dream on Sunday. The man jumped in after his daughter fell overboard from the fourth deck on the ship.
The two survived the fall and were rescued by Disney Cruise Line personnel about 20 minutes later.
That's obviously a news story. But the initial reporting of that story included a lot of information that, frankly, seemed suspicious to me. Most reports repeated claims about the cause of the girl's fall that since have been proven false. (I am not going to repeat those claims here.)
If there is a news story out there where I cannot determine what is true and what is not, and I do not have any additional facts or perspective that I can bring to that story, my inclination is to hold off on publishing. Sure, I could chase clicks and go with incomplete or incorrect information, but if I wanted to do that, I would have sold out for a better paying gig a long time ago.
Even if I posted the incomplete information that I knew to be correct, I feared that the comments on that post would become a vector for sharing the false information, which I did not want to spread.
So I held off. Now, however, with the Broward Sheriff’s Office issuing a statement, I can feel comfortable sharing the information that I did above. Here is the statement from the Sheriff's office:
"The incident occurred at approximately 11:30 a.m. Sunday, June 29, on deck 4 of a Disney cruise ship, while the ship was in international waters somewhere between the Bahamas and Port Everglades. Broward Sheriff's Office detectives continue to investigate the moments before a 5-year-old girl lost her balance while sitting on a railing and falling backward through a porthole. After the girl's mother alerted her husband, who didn't see the incident, he jumped into the ocean to save his daughter. BSO detectives said after the 37-year-old father found his daughter, he treaded water until they were rescued by a tender that was launched from the ship.
"The crew's 'man overboard' training and readiness paid off because they executed a successful ocean rescue. BSO investigators said the total time from the child's accidental fall to the rescue was about 20 minutes. Once rescued, the father and daughter were checked out by the ship's medical staff. And after the ship arrived Monday morning at Port Everglades, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue transported them to an area hospital. The father was hospitalized. The family lives out of state. For the family's continued privacy, detectives are not releasing their names, where they live, or the details of the father's injury.
"BSO detectives have reviewed the ship's security video, which corroborates the statements from the family and cruise ship staff. The investigation into this matter continues."
The fact that the daughter and the father both survived the four-story fall into the ocean is in itself miraculous. While millions of passengers have sailed safely aboard the Disney Dream over the years, the passage of that time increases the chances that one of those passengers will find some way to fall off the ship, no matter how well the cruise line has tried to proof the ship's design to prevent that. So I am certain that this incident will lead to further review of railing safety aboard many ships, not just Disney's.
I hope this incident encourages cruise passengers to feel less dismissive of muster drills at the start of their voyage. The Disney Dream crew's reaction to this incident was textbook impressive, helping save the lives of these passengers. Please always pay attention to anything that a cruise crew member has to say to you regarding safety while on board. These people know what they are doing and that really can save your life.
More credit needs to go to that father. Absolute hero.
I have so many questions: Here are just a few.
And I have to be cynical since there will Most likely be a Lawsuit
1. How does One fall through a porthole while sitting on a rail at the age of 5?
2. If no one was watching the 5 year old and telling her Not to sit on this railing, how did the mother see her fall, then notify the father?
When big money is involved - you have to be cynical and ask these things.
Maybe it was a jump and only 15 feet where the father was waiting to 'Save' her.
I was in the service where I worked on a flight deck for several years. Do you know how many man overboards we had? Zero...
Even with all the Jet blast, Helo prop wash and vertical Harrier jet landings where the winds can knock you off you feet - we had Zero men overboard.
Even when the Ocean was mad and the ship was listing badly... Zero
Why - well if you are the service - there is no one to Sue...
So for me it is hard to understand how one 5 year old "falls" off a railing then through a Porthole\small window....
The only way this is possible if she was on her stomach - on a railing - while half of her body was leaning out of the window, then maybe....
You have to follow the Money...
Oh and Happy 4th!!
Ironically, I just recently watched the "Poop Cruise" documentary on Netflix, which is a good lesson for all cruise guests to not only pay attention during those "mandatory" muster drills, but to carefully read the Contract of Carriage that you agree to when purchasing a ticket (passengers on the ill-fated vessel had essentially agreed that the cruise line was not responsible for maintaining sanitary conditions on board when buying their tickets, though the documentary claims that the company has since removed those clauses from the CoC). It also draws some light to the modern news cycle, viewers' insatiable thirst for information, and the ease with which "clickbait" can deliver ratings and often distorted/incomplete details.