The FBI is investigating the death of a 12-year-old boy who plummeted from a balcony to a lower deck on a Royal Caribbean ship returning to Galveston, Tex., the agency said.
Circumstances surrounding the boy’s death were still not clear Wednesday. Multiple news outlets have reported that the boy fell from a balcony that overlooks the inner part of the vessel and landed in the Central Park area of the ship, which is lined with trees, plants, restaurants and shops.
Railings on cruise ships must be at least 42 inches tall, under the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act that passed in 2010.
The FBI confirmed that it was investigating the incident but declined to release additional details. The agency, which said it is “the primary federal agency authorized to investigate potential crimes on the high seas,” was coordinating with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.
Royal Caribbean released little information.
“We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of one of our guests,” the cruise company said in a statement. “Our Care Team is providing support and assistance to the guest’s family during this difficult time. For the privacy of the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share.”
Harmony of the Seas is one of the largest cruise ships in the world, according to the Royal Caribbean website. It has 18 decks and can hold a maximum of 6,687 guests in 2,747 staterooms. It is divided into seven “neighborhoods,” including a boardwalk, promenade, pool and sports zone, youth area and the Central Park section where the boy fell.
The ship was the scene of another young passenger’s death in 2019, when a 16-year-old slipped and fell while trying to access his room from an adjacent balcony, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported at the time. Royal Caribbean called that incident a “tragic accident.”
Falls from cruise ships are uncommon, though multiple people go overboard every year, according to data compiled by cruise industry researcher Ross Klein. He has tracked reports of at least 386 people who reportedly went overboard between 2000 and 2020, The Washington Post reported last year.
Attorney Spencer Aronfeld, who sues cruise lines, said in a TikTok video that he received multiple messages from passengers on the ship with theories about what happened in Saturday’s fall.
In a message to The Washington Post, he said that in his 35 years of experience, he has found that it would be “extremely unlikely” to simply fall over a balcony railing.
“The majority of railing cases I’ve investigated deal with intoxicated passengers sitting in the railings or leaning over the railings or intentionally going over,” he wrote.
