A Royal Caribbean crew member jumped to his death after he stabbed a female coworker while the ship was cruising through the Bahamas.
The unidentified South African male crew member, 35, stabbed his 28-year-old coworker, who was also South African, multiple times during a personal dispute, the cruise line and the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.
‘One of the crew members was injured, [she] was attended to by the onboard medical team, and she is now in stable condition,’ Royal Caribbean told Daily Mail in a statement.
‘Unfortunately, the other crew member is deceased after he went overboard.’
After stabbing her, he plunged off the ship around 7pm on Thursday, and an Oscar alert – which notifies ship passengers that someone went over – was immediately enacted.
Rescue crews retrieved his body shortly after he went overboard and he was found unresponsive. Crews could be seen performing CPR, but he was eventually declared deceased.
Royal Bahamian Police Force told Daily Mail in a statement that the ‘matter is presently being investigated.’
‘The cruise ship just arrived on the island this morning,’ a spokesperson told Daily Mail.
Rescue efforts were deployed immediately on Thursday and the boat turned back toward the overboard man.
The boat was near San Salvador, which is roughly 200 miles East of Nassau, when it turned backed.
The Icon of the Seas ship runs a seven-day trip, where the last stop before returning to the US is at CocoCay, Bahamas, a private island owned by the Royal Caribbean.
The ship is about on course and is expected to return to Miami on Saturday.
The Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world at nearly 1,200 feet long. It cost $2billion to build the vessel and was one of the most expensive ever.
It holds up to 7,600 passengers and weighs at about 250,800 tons.