Twelve-year-old child falls to death on Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas

Passengers aboard a Royal Caribbean ship watched in horror as a 12-year-old boy plunged to his death from a 13th-floor balcony on the last night of their cruise.

Thousands were aboard the Harmony of the Seas as it headed towards Galveston, Texas, at the end of its seven-day cruise around the Western Caribbean on Saturday.

Witnesses said the boy had been playing with a group of friends he had made on board shortly before falling over the cabin railing into the internal Central Park area of the ship, a plaza filled with bars, pubs and restaurants.

Royal Caribbean staff attempted to resuscitate the youngster, but he died before the ship docked in Texas.

‘My daughter was friends with him and said he was upset today,’ posted Sara Tullas on a Facebook page for passengers. ‘She is so upset. I wish I would have known he was struggling today.’

The French-built ship was the world’s largest cruise liner when it was launched in 2016 , with rooms for more than 7,000 passengers across its 18 decks

Friends said the boy was on board with his family, including two sisters, for a birthday celebration.

Passengers lining up to board at Galveston for the boat’s next cruise were told they would have to wait as investigations continued on board.

Royal Caribbean confirmed in a statement that a death had occurred on board and that staff were in contact with the family.

The company refused to release any more information but horrified witnesses said the boy had fallen from his family’s cabin on Deck 14 to the Central Park atrium on Deck 8 at around 5pm.

‘We were a few rooms down and saw undercover cops investigating the room this morning,’ wrote Melissa Anderson. ‘Birthday decorations on the door and inside the room, with a chair pushed against the balcony.’

‘It had rained that afternoon and the balconies were damp,’ added Becky Potter. ‘It would be difficult to fall if you stand on the ground, but if on the chairs or wet table top anything is possible.’

The French-built ship was the world’s largest cruise liner when it was launched in 2016, with rooms for more than 7,000 passengers across its 18 decks.

Geared towards family-bookings it boasts ‘endless opportunities’ for children to ‘make friends and engage in fun, educational, supervised activities with other cruisers in their age group’.

Passengers reacted with horror to the news on one of the ship’s private Facebook groups

In 2019 a 16-year-old passenger slipped and fell to his death on the boat while trying to climb into the balcony of his eighth-deck cabin after locking himself out

The boy had taken part in the cruise’s teen-club, and many passengers said their children had got to know the boy before his death.

‘The conversations I have had to have with my son really tripped me up,’ wrote Shannon Elizabeth from Belfair in Washington.

‘My son and him actually got really close on the cruise, and he saw too much of what happened.’

‘My family and I saw the incident unfold right before us as we were looking down into Central Park from the pool deck,’ wrote Christa Schoolfield. ‘We did not see whether he jumped or was playing around.’

In 2019 a 16-year-old passenger slipped and fell to his death on the boat while trying to climb into the balcony of his eighth-deck cabin after locking himself out.

Laurent Mercer from Wallis and Futuna was declared dead after falling onto a quay while the ship was docked in Labadee, Haiti, in the middle of a seven-day cruise.

And in November last year another 16-year-old boy did after falling from his rain-sodden cabin balcony into the Central Park area of the Harmony’s sister ship Allure of the Seas.

The ship was heading from Port Canaveral in Florida to Nassau in the Bahamas when passengers on the Allure heard a ship-wide announcement in the early hours of the morning calling for blood donors to come forward.

The boy’s mother Aymee Comas-Diaz later thanked people who tried to help her dying son on the Allure.

‘I can’t begin to express how much it meant to me and my family to see so many strangers come down to help us,’ she wrote in a Facebook posting. ‘And to the lady who gave me a hug, thank so much. I needed it.’

Some passengers wondered if they could help the boy’s grieving family 

Passengers on the Harmony had already been unnerved by a series of ‘alpha alpha’ emergency alerts during the cruise by the time the final one signaled the 12-year-old’s fatal fall on Saturday.

‘I looked over the railing after the emergency alert and wish I didn’t,’ wrote one. ‘Condolences to the families.’ 

‘I witnessed the incident with the 12yo boy that passed away, I stayed with him the entire time hoping to see any sign of life and to let him know he wasn’t alone when he passed,’ an anonymous passenger posted to Facebook.

‘I have my opinions on how the staff and medical personnel reacted and responded to the emergency that I will address at a later time when appropriate.

‘But for now all I ask is to please hug your children tight and tell you family members you love them.

‘Life can change in an instant. Today I was hiding ducks in Central Park and one second later a child’s life was gone in front of me.’

Dailymail.com has reached out to Royal Caribbean for more details.