Cruise passenger survives 10-floor plunge overboard from Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas called off the search for the passenger overboard at 5.45pm local time, after a dramatic rescue. Photo / RCCL

A woman has been rescued from the waters round the Dominican Republic after falling from the 10th deck of a Royal Caribbean vessel.

The US Coast Guard received a message from the crew of the Mariner of the Seas calling off the search at 5.45pm on Sunday, saying that a 42-year-old passenger had been rescued.

The guest had fallen from the ship’s middeck, according to USA Today.

Mariner was about 50km south of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic when the woman fell, two days into a week-long round trip to the Caribbean from Port Canaveral, Florida.

The ship immediately turned around, said passengers.

“The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and began searching for the guest,” wrote a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean.

“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.”

The woman was transferred from the ship’s medical facility to a hospital in Willemstad, Curacao, according to the US Coast Guard, which is investigating circumstances around the woman’s fall.

The ship continued on its planned itinerary.

In the decade between 2009 and 2019 212 passengers and crew fell from cruise ships according to CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) data.

Just 48 were rescued.

Last December, passenger James Grimes spent 20 hours at sea after falling from the Carnival Valor. He recalled the ordeal of going missing at sea in the shark-infested Gulf of Mexico in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

“I was determined to swim until my arms and legs could not hold my body up anymore,” he said.