On a Virgin Voyages cruise ship, a woman died after falling from her balcony and landing on another traveler.
The Valiant Lady ship had just departed Miami for Roatan, Honduras, when the accident occurred around 9:35 p.m. on Sunday, April 2. The incident caused the ship to return to port.
Virgin Voyages said in a statement that despite prompt medical attention, a passenger who fell from her balcony onto a lower deck died. The person who was struck by the falling woman wasn’t seriously hurt.
Rarely do passengers on a cruise ship fall from the balcony, especially into the water. According to data provided for the Cruise Lines International Association by consulting firm GP Wild (International) Limited, there were 126 minor injuries and 292 serious injuries to passengers or crew members aboard cruise ships between 2009 and 2019.
In 2022, a passenger on a Carnival cruise ship related his 20-hour adventure in the Gulf of Mexico treading water. James Michael Grimes, a resident of Alabama, vanished on November 24, the evening before Thanksgiving, after plunging into the ocean from the Carnival Valor. During the five-day trip from Cozumel to Mexico, Grimes stepped outside the bar to use the restroom. He said that he could no longer see the ship when he came to as he awoke in the water. A US Coast Guard ship came to Grimes’ aid 20 miles from the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River. Before being found, he had struggled for 20 hours to stay alive.