The father of a 5-year-old girl who fell overboard from a Disney cruise ship off the coast of Florida did not lift her up onto the railing before the accident, authorities have said.
The “little girl was not being held, as erroneously reported on some social media sites,” the Broward County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News Miami on Tuesday, referring to speculation that the child’s father had lifted her up for a photo before she fell backwards and smacked into the ocean.
The terrifying accident happened on Sunday aboard the Disney Dream cruise ship as it sailed between the Bahamas and Fort Lauderdale.
After the girl fell in, her father jumped into the ocean to save her, and treaded water for more than 10 minutes until a rescue boat approached them, cell phone video from the incident shows.
A fellow passenger also came to the dad’s defense amid the speculation, insisting that a crew member told her that the little girl scaled the protective barrier.
“The crew member who said that’s her station and she was on the fourth floor, she did say that she was climbing up and the parents were playing shuffleboard and the dad jumped in after her,” Monica Shannon told CBS News Miami.
Shannon was on a lower deck with her family waiting to meet Disney princesses when she saw “something really fast fly by,” she said.”I just figured it was maybe a part of the show or just the experience, but about five minutes later we heard that someone flew overboard,”she went on.
Deck 4, where the girl and her family were when she fell, is less crowded than the other decks on the ship, and contains shuffleboard courts, Shannon said.
A protective barrier is in place on the deck, although there were “little divots and spaces that make it so that you can climb,” she added.The little girl is lucky to be alive, and the Disney crew snapped into action immediately, authorities said.
“Based on media reports I have read, the Disney crew was well prepared. Clearly, their training and readiness paid off because they executed a successful ocean rescue,” the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“While there doesn’t appear to be anything suspicious, Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives are investigating the circumstances that led up to the child falling overboard. This family is so blessed. It’s great to be able to respond to good news rather than what could have been a tragic outcome,” the statement continued.
