It was supposed to be a dream holiday but when a five-year-old girl fell overboard things took a turn for the worst. Now details are starting to emerge about exactly what happened
Broadway-style shows, character greetings and fireworks at sea – a holiday on a Disney cruise ship is an experience many young children dream of.
But for one little girl things went horribly wrong when her mum asked her to pose for a photo.
And as details now come to light about the unfortunate incident that saw the five-year-old fall into the ocean the mother has been called ‘negligent and irresponsible’ by police who said the accident could have been avoided.
The terrifying incident unfolded on June 29 this year, as the ship was making its way back to Florida from the Bahamas.
Passengers looked on in horror as crew members rushed to launch a rescue boat into the sea. The whole ship was panicking after they heard a ‘MOB port side’ announcement – the emergency code which means ‘man overboard’ –
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The young girl’s father also bravely dived in to save his daughter and kept her afloat for 20 minutes until they were both pulled to safety.
Witnesses hailed the little girl’s father a ‘hero’ after he jumped in to save her and videos from onlookers showed a rescue team racing to reach them, while passengers clapped as they were pulled back to safety.
But months later, authorities have finally revealed the real reason the girl fell in. The child’s mother had reportedly told her daughter to pose for a picture in front of a porthole just moments before she lost her balance and plunged into the sea, according to the Daily Mail.
The report states the family had been walking along deck four when the mother pointed to the opening and ‘offered for her daughter to take a picture in the porthole’.
Investigators said the mum ‘assumed the porthole had a window or plexiglass, and she thought that [her daughter] would be caught by the glass, but instead, she kept falling’.
Detective Christopher Favitta, of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, said: “Upon looking at the window myself, as a prudent person, I immediately saw that the window was open to the air, and did not have a covering.
“This act, facilitated by [the mother], placed the child in a life-threatening situation. As a result, the child fell from the ship and into the water, in an avoidable accident.”
Despite Detective Favitta’s recommendation to pursue charges, the state attorney ultimately declined, saying the mother’s actions were ‘negligent and irresponsible’ but did not meet the legal threshold for criminal.
Meanwhile, Noel and Sue Radford, the parents of the UK’s largest family were actually taken to court for taking their huge brood of children on a Disney cruise during term time. They splashed out around £50,000 on a trip for their own 22 children and 11 grandchildren in April this year to celebrate Sue’s 50th birthday.
However, the parents were taken to court and hit with a fine for taking some of their younger children out of school for the trip. The fines added up to an extra £1,000 dollars to the cost of their trip.
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