Cruise ship worker explains terrifying reality of what happens when someone goes overboard

Travelling on a cruise ship might seem like the ultimate experience, but if you end up in the sea, there’s a scary reality you’ll need to be aware of before stepping foot on board.

We’ve heard of the horrible examples time and time again of passengers accidentally – or purposefully – getting into the sea.

However, the happy endings come few and far between.

One particular cruise ship worker has spoken out on YouTube about what your chances are really like once you hit the water.

Lucy, who runs the ‘Cruising as a Crew’ YouTube channel, posted a video titled, Man Overboard: The Terrifying Truth Cruise Lines Don’t Tell You, which sees her analyse social media videos about instances where people have fallen overboard.

Lucy revealed the truth about falling overboard (YouTube/Cruisingascrew)

There, she explained the truth of being able to make it back on the boat.

“The truth about going overboard is a lot more complicated than social media makes it seem,” said Lucy, as she claimed that ‘if you're an adult, you do not just trip over your flip-flop and find yourself falling off deck 15.’

Instead, she said that on the occasions that if alcohol is added to the mix, ‘everything changes’ because it lowers inhibitions and leads to people doing unsafe things near the railings.

Revealing that if you fall off the ship, you’re likely to be ‘disorientated’ and might have even broken a bone due to the height and speed of the fall, which Lucy says is approximately 40 miles per hour.

From there, ‘if you even survive falling in the water, it’s a miracle because it’s like hitting concrete’.

She went on to say that whether you live or die after the initial fall is generally due to the way you land in the water.

There is also the issue of people not seeing the person go overboard, leading to a search effort being conducted far too late.

People are unlikely to survive (Getty Stock Images)

However, in the case you do see someone go over, she said to never take your eyes off them as it takes a ‘split second’ to lose them in the water.

On top of that, instructing people around you to throw in as many life rings as possible can ‘make the difference’ between finding the person and not, as they are bright orange rings that move along with the current – the same direction the person will be carried.

Lastly, if you end up in the water yourself, she said ‘the first thing that you need to do if you want to survive is slow your heart rate down, slow your breathing down, which is incredibly difficult to do because adrenaline is going to be coursing through you.’

But chillingly, Lucy said in the video that ‘unfortunately, 90 per cent of the time if you go overboard, you're not coming back on board.’