{"id":41509,"date":"2025-10-20T17:48:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=41509"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:48:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:48:33","slug":"how-girl-5-fell-off-disney-cruise-finally-revealed-as-mothers-instruction-is-released-by-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=41509","title":{"rendered":"How girl, 5, fell off Disney cruise finally revealed as mother’s instruction is released by authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More details have been revealed about the unfortunate incident that saw a five-year-old fall into the ocean from a Disney cruise ship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was supposed to be a dream family vacation<\/a> with sunshine, sea air, and smiles aboard the Disney<\/a> Dream cruise ship. But what began as a picture-perfect getaway for one family ended in horror when the young girl suddenly vanished overboard into the waves below.<\/p>\n

The terrifying incident unfolded on June 29 this year<\/a>, as the ship was making its way back to Florida<\/a> from the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

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Passengers described panic spreading through the decks<\/a> after a ‘MOB port side’ – the emergency code which means ‘man overboard’ – announcement was made.<\/p>\n

Moments later, crew members rushed to launch a rescue boat into the sea.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n

The father was hailed a ‘hero’ after diving in to save his daughter (Facebook\/DeWayne Smith)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Witnesses hailed the little girl\u2019s father a ‘hero’ after he jumped in to save her: treading water for almost 20 minutes before they were both pulled to safety.<\/p>\n

Videos from onlookers showed a rescue team racing to reach them, while passengers clapped as they were brought back on board.<\/p>\n

But months later, authorities have revealed the real reason the girl fell and it wasn\u2019t what many first believed.<\/p>\n

According to a newly released police<\/a> report, noted<\/a> by the Daily Mail, the child\u2019s mother had reportedly told her daughter to pose for a picture in front of a porthole just moments before she lost her balance and plunged into the sea.<\/p>\n

The report states the family had been walking along deck four when the mother pointed to the opening and ‘offered for her daughter to take a picture in the porthole’.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the mom ‘assumed the porthole had a window or plexiglass, and she thought that [her daughter] would be caught by the glass, but instead, she kept falling’.<\/p>\n

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\"Investigators<\/div>\n

Investigators said the fall happened after a photo went wrong (Wayleebird\/Getty Stock Image)<\/cite><\/div>\n

According to the report, authorities said the mom even took several photos in rapid succession. These were images that ‘when streamed together\u2026 depict a seconds-long video of the child getting up on the railing and falling backwards into the water’.<\/p>\n

Detective Christopher Favitta, of the Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office, later inspected the scene himself, writing: \u201cUpon looking at the window myself, as a prudent person, I immediately saw that the window was open to the air, and did not have a covering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis act, facilitated by [the mother] placed the child in a life-threatening situation. As a result, the child fell from the ship and into the water, in an avoidable accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Detective Favitta\u2019s recommendation to pursue charges, the state attorney ultimately declined, saying the mother\u2019s actions were ‘negligent and irresponsible’ but did not meet the legal threshold for ‘criminal culpable negligence’, as reported by the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

UNILAD has contacted the Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office for further comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Featured Image Credit: Getty Images\/Horacio Villalobos<\/cite><\/p>\n

Topics:\u00a0Disney<\/a>, Florida<\/a>, US News<\/a>, Cruise ship<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More details have been revealed about the unfortunate incident that saw a five-year-old fall into the ocean from a Disney cruise ship. It was supposed to be a dream family … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41511,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41509\/revisions\/41511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}