
Share
26th July 2025
05:14pm BST

The South African man who leapt to his death from a Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas cruise did so after reportedly stabbing a female colleague this week.
On Thursday evening (July 24), the still unidentified 35-year-old was said to have fallen overboard around 7pm as the 'world's largest cruise ship' passed through the Bahamas on its way to Miami.
In response to an Oscar alert - notifying the whole vessel that somebody was in the water - a rescue crew was sent out and collected his body within half an hour.
Following failed resuscitation attempts, he was pronounced dead.
The shocking twist, though, is that he violently attacked a 28-year-old member of staff right before losing his own life.
Royal Caribbean said in a statement (per Cruise Hive): "One of the crew members was injured, [she] was attended to by the onboard medical team, and she is now in stable condition. Unfortunately, the other crew member is deceased after he went overboard.
"We extend our condolences to the crew member's family and loved ones. To respect their privacy, we have no additional details to share."

Luxury cruising has had something of a dark shadow looming over it of late.
Just last month, a Disney Dream cruise made the headlines after a young girl fell overboard, leading to the father jumping in after her.
A subsequent police investigation - all sorts of rumours were swirling around at the time of the incident, including that he'd pushed her in - using CCTV from the ship revealed that the 5-year-old was sitting on a railing when she slipped backwards through a porthole.
As the mother panicked, her father was then seen diving into the ocean. The pair treaded water for 20 minutes before the rescue team got to them.
Explore more on these topics: