Teen Falls To His Death From Cruise Ship, Investigators Looking At Possible Suicide

A 15-year-old boy traveling with his family on board the MSC Seashore cruise ship that was returning to Miami from the Caribbean plunged to his death off the ship. The case is being investigated as a suicide.

MSC Cruises told CBS4 News that ship officials notified authorities immediately about the teen’s fall as the ship’s care team assisted the young man’s family. Crew Center also reported that the “man overboard” alarm was sounded at around 7.30 p.m. last Wednesday as the cruise ship was moving to Miami following a trip to the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

A source told the outlet that the young man fell from a Deck 16 balcony and landed on a promenade on Deck 8. After the alarm was sounded, the ship’s captain advised all passengers to return to their cabins. A passenger said there were three emergency blasts before the “man overboard” warning.

A passenger on board the cruise ship captured the moment when the captain announced “man overboard” three times on video. In the footage, the female passenger immediately moves to an area that appears to be the balcony of her cabin. “Oh my God, oh my God!” the woman says. Other people can be heard repeating “man overboard” as the woman says “Oh my God, it’s awful!”

The passenger also says, “Can we stop?” At the end of the video, the passenger said, “I don’t expect a ship this huge to come to a stop … it would probably take some time … If they’re gonna send a lifeboat out for a search.”

A detective with the Miami-Dade Police Department told Fox News that “no foul play is suspected” in the teenager’s fall.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the teenager’s body was recovered.

The recent fall from a cruise ship comes about two weeks after a woman fell off a Carnival Cruise Line ship, triggering an international search effort that was later called off by the U.S. Coast Guard. The woman, believed to be in her 20s, fell off the ship near Ensenada, Mexico.

Many passengers raised concerns about potential foul play in the Carnival Cruise Line incident, KCBS-TV reported. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating evidence related to the incident.