Carnival Cruise Ship Death: Woman Falls Off Cabin’s Balcony During Bahamas Trip

A woman sailing on a Carnival Cruise Line ship from Florida to the Bahamas fell to her death from her cabin’s balcony. The incident, which took place last Friday, is currently being investigated by the Bahamas police.

The accident took place aboard Carnival Elation when the woman plunged “several decks below,” a statement from Carnival Cruise Line spokesman Vance Gulliksen read, according to the Miami Herald. The ship departed from Jacksonville on Thursday and was en route for a four-day Bahamas cruise.

“The ship’s medical team responded immediately, but, unfortunately, she passed away,” Gulliksen said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased and her family.”

An eyewitness, Megan Burdewick, told the Miami Herald: "There was blood everywhere."

“We weren’t [allowed] off the boat to Freeport until they investigated it. They were taking pictures [and everything],” Burdewick, who was on the cruise with her husband Matthew, reportedly texted her mother.

Bahamian law enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department were all notified of the incident and “are assisting these agencies as the investigation continues,” Gulliksen said.

The death aboard the Carnival Elation comes after another cruise tragedy where a female passenger died hours after a casino boat caught fire off Florida's Gulf Coast. The woman and about 50 other passengers and crew were forced to jump into the waters to escape.

This is not the first death-by-falling incident onboard a Carnival cruise. Last October, Zion Smith, 8, fell off the fifth-story deck of Carnival Glory while the ship was docked at a Miami port. Zion was traveling with her brother, mother, and her mother's boyfriend when she tragically died. Some family members on the ship believed that several people were pushing in an attempt to get out of an elevator and this may have accidentally caused the girl to fall, her uncle Damien Fox told ABC Local 10 at the time.

In February 2017, Kevin Wellons of Georgia fell from the 11th-floor deck of the Elation into the water while the ship was near the Bahamas.

The cruise ship line was also hit with controversy when about 200 passengers aboard a Sea Princess Cruise ship were sickened with a norovirus outbreak on Jan. 2.

More than 500 passengers fell sick onboard two Royal Caribbean cruises in two separate incidents that occurred in November and December. The incidents took place in the Royal Caribbean International-owned luxury cruises Ovation of the Seas and Independence of the Seas. The outbreak of illness in the cruises happened when 332 of the 5,547 guests aboard the Independence of the Seas complained of gastrointestinal illness after the cruise departed from Port Everglades in Florida on Dec. 11. In a similar case on the Ovation of the Seas in November, nearly 209 of more than 5,000 passengers showed symptoms of stomach-related sickness after the cruise departed from Singapore.