Cruise passenger miraculously rescued after falling overboard

Data suggests that less than one third of similar incidents resulted in a rescue

The incident occurred on the Symphony of the Seas ship, seen here docked in the Bahamas (Getty Images)

A passenger has been rescued after falling overboard on a Royal Caribbean cruise shortly after the ship left Barcelona.

The incident occurred on the Symphony of the Seas ship on 29 October; the guest was found and rescued after the ship turned around.

In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson from Royal Caribbean said: “On 29 October, a guest went overboard on Symphony of the Seas. The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and began searching for the guest.

“Thankfully, the guest was successfully recovered and was brought on board. Our Care team is now offering assistance and support to them and their travelling party. Out of privacy for the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share.

“Symphony of the Seas is continuing on its transatlantic sailing as planned.”

In a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, a user named Landon claimed that there was an emergency call of “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar”, which is code for man overboard, at around 11pm GMT. He added that there were “spotlights and rescue boats with lights visible” from the balcony.

In a second post, the same user uploaded a video in which a voice can be heard on the loudspeaker saying that the crew “did recover one person from the water”, though the videos could not be independently verified.

Events such as this are rare, with data from the Cruise Lines International Association showing that, on average, 19 people per year fell overboard in the years between 2009 and 2019. Of a total 212 incidents in this decade, only 48 passengers – a total of 28.2 per cent – were rescued.

A similar incident occurred in June after a passenger on a different Royal Caribbean ship fell into the water near the Dominican Republic. Videos of the daylight rescue circulated on X shortly after.

Earlier this month, a major search and rescue operation was undertaken near Ramsgate, Kent, after a crew member from AIDA cruises fell overboard, but was called off after a 10-hour search across a 25-mile stretch failed to find him.