A passenger died after leaping from the 10th-story deck of the Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas during a gay Atlantis Cruise.
The incident happened yesterday at around 7:40 p.m. while the ship was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The victim was a 46-year-old man from Naples, Florida.
CBS News correspondent David Begnaud tweeted that surveillance video taken by the U.S. Coast Guard shows a “clean jump” by the victim, who plummeted over 175 feet from the deck and into the dark waters below. It is unclear what motivated him the jump.
BREAKING: Roll call underway aboard @RoyalCarribean's Oasis of the Seas that's docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to identify the passenger who fell from the 10th floor deck, 4hrs ago. Divers are searching. Passengers are on an Altantis cruise; it caters to the Lgbtq+ community https://t.co/P5Mg3MQ6WZ pic.twitter.com/K9LwuVLSfa
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 23, 2020
Eric Patton was a passenger on the cruise. He tells his local newspaper that everyone on board was “concerned and patient” following the incident while ship crew did a head count of all the passengers.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“It’s the world’s biggest gay cruise,” he said. “Atlantis has been doing these cruises for decades and is so professional and welcoming. I know that their hearts have to be broken over all this.”
“It’s just so sad this happened.”
Sirens just blared and we were all told to be quiet in order to process the line quickly. #OasisOfTheSeas #GayCruise. pic.twitter.com/kQZAm5q2tt
— Eric A. Patton (@eapatton_tn) January 23, 2020
The cruise was scheduled to depart San Juan at around 9:30 p.m. but ended up remaining in port until 1 a.m. as the Coast Guard, along with local agencies, launched boats and dive teams to retrieve the body.
Royal Caribbean declined to comment on the incident.
Autoridades buscan a persona que se alega cayó del crucero Oasis of the Seas a la bahía de San Juan. #busqueda #rescate #oasisofthesea
Posted by Maribel Meléndez Fontán on Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Related: Gay pop singer leaps to his death from cruise ship after posting cryptic message on Facebook
Dwight
Sort of a disconnect between the headline and the first sentence. There’s a difference between jumping and falling.
Andy.R
Get your facts correct! He was not a passenger, he was one of the Atlantis technical crew that worked on the light and sound. And he did jump, as mentioned by the “clean jump” term. Sad someone chooses that path in their life, nonetheless.
TomG
Did he jump ( for some unknown reason) or was he drunk and just fall? Taking a cruise to jump seems a bit crazy and not in the suicidal kind of way.
Andy.R
Not as crazy as you might think. I was on a Alaska cruise last year and the husband jumped before dawn, leaving the wife behind. It happens often as it is a most certain death hitting the water from almost 200 ft above.
niles
That’s unfortunate. As for cruises, I don’t know what would be worse – a ship full of insufferable straight people or one full of insufferable gay men.
Andy.R
I’ve been in many gay and straight cruises. Will never do another straight cruise again, if I can help it. On the other hand, I do 2 gay cruises a year and can’t have enough!
RandomGuy
These gay cruises never seem to end well.
Andy.R
I’ve been on many gay cruises, and to me, the only reason they don’t end well it’s because I have to get back to the harsh reality of living among straight people and children afterwards.
Cam
One event on one cruise is what you’re basing that on??
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
You’re not supposed to take the words literally after listening to “I believe I can fly”…..