Passenger dies after balcony fall on Norwegian Getaway
Norwegian said the guest fell onto a lower deck as the ship returned to Miami from a three-night Bahamas voyage.
A passenger died after going over a balcony aboard Norwegian Getaway on the final night of a three-night Bahamas voyage. The ship was returning to Miami on Sunday, Aug. 23, when the incident occurred.
Norwegian said the guest fell from a balcony onto a lower deck and that crew members responded immediately. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office was treating the death as an open investigation, according to the report.
Other recent incidents have had differing outcomes. In October, a woman in her 20s went overboard from MSC Virtuosa near the Channel Islands. A French helicopter crew recovered her from the water, but she died. Separately, bystanders rescued a man who fell between Norwegian Encore and the pier in Nassau by using a ladder. A 5-year-old who went overboard from Disney Dream after leaning against a railing for photos was also rescued, along with her father after he jumped in after her.
Industry data compiled for the Cruise Lines International Association recorded 212 overboard incidents between 2009 and 2019, with 48 people recovered alive. A separate academic study covering 2000 through 2019 estimated that falls overboard or onto lower decks accounted for about 23% of passenger deaths at sea.