Featured Image Credit: Facebook/DeWayne Smith
Topics: Disney, Cruise Ship, Travel
Joe Harker
New details have come to light about an incident where a father jumped overboard a Disney cruise ship to save his daughter after she had fallen into the water.
Earlier this year, a little girl fell overboard the Disney Dream cruise ship, with her father diving into the water after her to make sure she didn't drown.
The crew on board the cruise ship sounded an emergency alert and deployed a rescue vessel, which reached the father and daughter as they treaded water.
The dad was seen handing his daughter to rescuers first before he was helped into the vessel and brought back onto the cruise ship to cheers from those watching.
Advert
A Disney spokesperson confirmed that both of them were back on board the ship 'within minutes', while police records from Broward Sheriff’s Office provided more details when they said that 'a 5-year-old girl lost her balance while sitting on a railing and falling backwards through a porthole'.
They had explained that at around 11:30am on 29 June, the family had been on Deck 4 of the cruise ship when the girl fell overboard.
Now, People reports that additional police documents reveal new details about the rescue at sea.
The police reports allege that the girl's mother had encouraged her to pose for a picture near an open porthole and claim that the girl sat on a railing and then fell backwards as she lost her balance.
Advert
Investigators said that the girl's mother had believed the opening had a covering behind it.
Meanwhile, the father had further described the incident from the hospital as he said he'd heard his wife scream, turned around and spotted his daughter in the water, jumping into the sea about 45 seconds later.
According to the police reports, the dad 'noted difficulty locating his daughter in the water and admitted losing visual contact temporarily', but even though he'd lost sight of her for a short time, he was able to spot her again and reach her.
He had said that 'due to the waves' he initially couldn't see his daughter and started calling out her name.
Advert
When he heard her shouting back, he told her to 'keep yelling so he could find her', and that some people threw flotation devices from the ship down to them.
Treading water until their rescue, the dad had allegedly expressed 'surprise and relief at their survival'.
Ship crews are trained to respond to 'man overboard' situations, and the two of them were back on board the cruise ship within 20 minutes of the girl falling off.
Thankfully, this one ended up in the successful rescue of both people, which is a rarity since in the majority of 'man overboard' cases the person is not recovered alive.
LADbible have contacted Disney Cruises for further comment.