What Caused a Florida Man to Fall From A Cruise Ship Earlier This Week?

Yesterday we blogged that a 46-year-old man from Naples, Florida died after falling from a cruise ship the day before. Similar to the aftermath of many cruise ship overboard deaths, authorities came out in the hours after the incident and claimed that the man had purposefully jumped from the ship. As this is a common refrain after cruise ship disappearances, the question inevitably arises: what would cause someone to jump from a cruise ship?

Though there is no definitive answer as to what would cause a passenger to jump from a cruise ship, there are generally two readily identifiable reasons: attempted suicide and a prank or stunt gone wrong. Both of these explanations could be influenced by the copious amounts of alcohol that cruise ships serve to passengers every day of the cruise. The ship on which the victim was sailing, Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas, even offers so-call “all you can drink” packages. 

In this most recent case, authorities have not identified alcohol as a factor. In fact, Ricardo Castrodad of the U.S. Coast Guard said that he did not know why the man jumped. According to Castrodad, surveillance video footage appeared to show the victim jumping 177 feet from the ship to the sea.