A grandfather who was reportedly dangling his granddaughter over the edge of a cruise ship dropped the little girl, who fell around 150 feet to her death Sunday.
The 18-month-old toddler was in her grandfather’s arms on the 11th-floor deck of Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas ship when the girl fell to the concrete below while the vessel was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Grandfather tells police he accidentally dropped his 1-year-old granddaughter to her death from a cruise ship in Puerto Rico. https://t.co/ITryy707Ts
— AP Central U.S. (@APCentralRegion) July 8, 2019
Emergency crews arrived at the scene and transported the child to a local hospital at around 4:30 p.m. local time, but doctors pronounced the little girl dead a short time later. The toddler was from Indiana and on the cruise with her parents and grandparents.
Local police have a launched a formal investigation into the child’s death, but have said the incident appears to be a tragic accident. Officials are going through CCTV of the ship and interviewing passengers.
The Freedom of the Seas was at the conclusion of its seven-day Southern Caribbean cruise of Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados at the time of the tragedy.
According to the AP, Royal Caribbean “called it a tragic incident and said they were helping the family,” but did not comment any further.
It’s not the first death onboard a Royal Caribbean ship this year. In January, a passenger died falling over the balcony on the Harmony of the Seas ship.
