A 42-year-old woman aboard Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas fell overboard and was rescued after spending more than 45 minutes in the water on Sunday.
The passenger fell off the 10th story deck at 5:44 p.m., Fox 35 reported.
“The cruise ship was transiting approximately 27 nautical miles south of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, when the incident occurred and was en route to Willemstad, Curaçao,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Passengers watched from their balconies with binoculars as rescue rafts circled the area where the woman, a United States citizen, fell.
“After we saw the life rafts or the life preservers and the smoke – I was like, someone just died,” passenger Matthew Kuhn told the outlet.
Kuhn, vacationing with his family, shared video footage of the search and rescue to Twitter. He said people were out on their balconies attempting to help the search and rescue team locate the missing woman.
Kuhn said passengers were expecting a body recovery and were ecstatic to see the woman was still alive and in good health.
The United States Coast guard did not deploy any resources, since the cruise line was able to recover the woman.
“No medical evacuation of the passenger was requested by the cruise ship,” the Coast Guard said. “The passenger was being kept on the cruise ship’s medical facility and later transferred to the Hospital in Willemstad, Curacao for evaluation. The Coast Guard is investigating the circumstances that led to the passenger going overboard.”
Only 28 percent of passengers who go overboard are rescued, according to data from a Cruise Lines International Association report on operational incidents from 2009 to 2019.
“To go from, ‘She’s probably not going to be found’ — and … it’s a body recovery, versus ‘Holy crap, they found her, and she’s alive!’” Kuhn said, highlighting the sense of relief he and others felt.
The cruise line is set to return to Port Canaveral on July 1.
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