A man died after falling from a Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Sea cruise ship on Sunday, May 26, but you wouldn't really know that based on what happened on the ship afterward, according to a passenger. Passenger Zachary Normandin, 31, spoke to the New York Post and described a kind of eerie scene after the tragic incident: things basically continued as normal. He told the outlet that he doesn't believe everyone on the ship knew that the man had died. "I think it’s kind of purposely silenced," he told the outlet.
At the time of the incident, the cruise ship was 300 miles off the Florida coast and heading toward Mahogany Bay, Honduras. The cause of the fall is under investigation, reported NBC Miami.
Some outlets, including the New York Post, have reported that the man jumped from the ship, while others, including NBC Miami, reported that the man fell.
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Normandin told the New York Post that about 300 passengers were eating dinner when they were informed that the man had been found. They assumed he was found safe, Normandin explained.
“Everyone in the dining room clapped and we’re like ‘yeah,’” he told the outlet, since they assumed he had survived. They later found out that he had died.
Normandin acknowledged that people might have different ways of coping with tragic events, but he was still surprised by how people "were just going about their day" after it happened.
"It’s just kind of dystopian," he told the outlet.
“I thought we were going straight back to Miami, I thought that was it. But no, everything just kept on going,” he told the outlet.
KIRO7 reported that the trip paused for two hours during the search for the passenger. The passenger has not been identified.
The cruise started on May 25, 2024, and was set to last for seven days, according to CruiseHive. The Icon of the Sea is the world's largest cruise ship with a capacity of up to 7,600 passengers.
Royal Caribbean said the following in a statement shared with CruiseHive:
“The ship’s crew immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard and launched a search and rescue operation. Our Care Team is actively providing support and assistance to the guest’s loved ones during this difficult time. For the privacy of the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share.”
