Cruise fall survivor branded a ‘stupid woman’
Air hostess who survived 10 hours in sea reportedly ‘argued with partner’ prior to vanishing overboard
A PASSENGER who survived 10 hours in the sea is a “stupid woman” who must have jumped off the ship, the mother of the cruise line’s president has told The Daily Telegraph.
Kay Longstaff, 46, an air hostess, was accused last night of causing massive disruption to fellow passengers while costing Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.
Allegations surfaced yesterday suggesting Miss Longstaff had been arguing with her boyfriend in the hours before she plunged into the Adriatic Sea from the seventh deck of the liner, about 75ft (23m) above the water.
Fellow passengers yesterday expressed anger towards Miss Longstaff and NCL for the chaos and disruption her actions had caused.
Many suggested there was no way she could have accidentally fallen from the ship, insisting that the security barriers were too high to topple over.
Some passengers claimed she had been drinking prior to the fall.
The 83-year-old mother of Andy Stuart, the cruise company’s president and chief executive, said he had been dismayed by reports of Miss Longstaff’s saying she “fell” off the back of the Norwegian Star.
Mr Stuart telephoned his mother from his office in Miami, Florida, to complain about Miss Longstaff’s version of events, calling it “fake news”.
Miss Longstaff, who moved from Cheltenham, Glos, to Spain in 2016, had told a Croatian television news channel after being rescued: “I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for 10 hours. I was sitting at the back of the deck.”
However, Mr Stuart’s mother, who contacted The Daily Telegraph to protest that her son’s company was being wrongly blamed for the incident, said: “She didn’t fall off. She jumped. This has cost Norwegian Cruise Line $600,000 (£470,000). This stupid woman. I spoke to Andrew at lunchtime. What he said was ‘this is fake news’. He said that she couldn’t have fallen. You would have to take steps to climb over the railings. He said she jumped in the water.”
She went on: “He is annoyed that it has been implied that NCL was at fault. He said NCL went to a lot of trouble. They delayed the progress of the ship and sent for the coastguard. If you think of the cost of the ship being delayed, passengers missing their connections, passengers waiting to embark. That has all amounted to more than $600,000. When you get criticism, it is highly unfair.”
Mr Stuart, 55, took up his role in 2015 and has been with NCL for 27 years. He earns a reported £1million a year. Ac- cording to reports, Miss Longstaff had been caught up in a row with her partner aboard the ship. He was asleep in their cabin when Miss Longstaff fell overboard at 11.45pm on Saturday. It is understood that CCTV footage captured the incident and established that no third party was involved.
Daniel Punch, who works on the Norwegian Star, posted on Facebook, according to reports: “She didn’t fall, she jumped... I spoke [to her] throughout the whole week. She was arguing with her fella the whole time.”
Miss Longstaff was found by the Croatian coastguard at 9.45am on Sunday and taken to hospital in Pula for treatment. She said her yoga fitness and singing helped her to survive. As she was released from hospital yesterday into the care of her partner, Italian sources suggested she had argued with him on the night, before he went back to his cabin and left her on the deck.
“The footage has been viewed and you can clearly see she was there on her own when she fell,” a source told Sunonline. “She was not pushed. The theory we are working on is that she most likely jumped.”
David Radas, a spokesman for the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, said its investigation was continuing. On Sunday night, Mr Radas said that CCTV images had “left a suspicion whether it was a jump or a falling off ”.
Miss Longstaff posted photographs of herself in Spain with Craig Rayment, an electrician, who she was dating as recently as June 15. It is not clear if Mr Rayment was on the cruise with her and he declined to comment yesterday.
Her father, Ron Longstaff, 76, a retired West Midlands Police chief superintendent, said he had no idea how his daughter had ended up in the sea. “She was certainly lucky. I am trying to work out what happened,” he said.
Bethany Joyce, 21, from Long Island, who was on board with her parents, said her mother planned to claim compensation as they had been forced to spend an extra two nights in Venice.
She said: “The cruise line was very unhelpful with helping us rebook travel plans. The only thing they gave us was 15 minutes of free Wi-fi to try to rebook. Disembarkation was also a mess. We had to sit around for hours.”
Passengers said they arrived in Venice at around 2.30pm on Sunday but did not disembark until 5.30pm.
Scott Bailey, a businessman from Derby, wrote: “Just upsets me that she is there smiling away and loving the publicity saying she ‘fell’. The only way you could get off the ship is by climbing over the protective barriers and then jumping.” Another passenger, “Eddiepal”, also said he had missed his flights home to Boston, a “rotten ending” to his holiday. He accused the cruise line of mistreating passengers and leaving them stranded in Venice.
Mr Stuart declined to comment on the contents of the call with his mother.
NCL declined to comment whilst the investigation was ongoing.
‘I spoke to Andrew … What he said was ‘this is fake news’. He said that she couldn’t have fallen’