SHE DID JUMP!
Lost at sea for 10 hours, Kay was hailed as a heroine. Now cruise investigators tell MoS:
POTTERING about on their apartment roof terrace on Friday, Kay Longstaff and Craig Rayment looked like any number of Costa del Sol expats. She hung some washing out to dry and sipped a cup of tea. He fixed some awning that was flapping in the breeze.
Completing the portrait of rosy domesticity, the couple later stood gazing reflectively across the rooftops of Torrequebrada towards the Mediterranean.
Yet a week ago the picture wasn’t nearly so restful.
Then, the couple, nearing the end of a seven- night cruise holiday, spent the day drinking and arguing intermittently aboard the 92,000ton Norwegian Star.
At some point Mr Rayment, 43, returned to their cabin, leaving 46-year-old Miss Longstaff still on
Hollywood could not have scripted it better . . . and the first thing she said to rescuers? Where will I find money to pay?
deck. Just before midnight on Saturday, as the liner rounded the northern coast of Croatia, she disappeared overboard, plunging 75ft from the seventh deck into the sea – and hitting the water with such force that she injured her right cheek.
Yet this was to be a story with a happy – many would say miraculous – ending. When hope was all but lost after ten long hours, Miss Longstaff, on the cusp of giving up, was spotted and plucked to safety. Hollywood could not have scripted it better.
This much is not in dispute. It was whether she jumped or accidentally fell ( foul play was quickly ruled out) that became the subject of international intrigue.
Today, after a week of claim and counter-claim, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that investigators in both Croatia and Italy – where the Norwegian Star was bound – have completed their i nquiries and concluded that Miss Longstaff, an air stewardess, did indeed jump.
They f ound t hat she did so ‘voluntarily’ – and in a ‘determined’ fashion. Yet the mystery of what prompted her drastic action remains, as do a number of unanswered questions.
Her father has suggested that she had recently ‘been going through a very hard time’. Inevitably some will conclude, therefore, that this was a cry for help – or worse.
Perhaps the row with her partner played a part. Perhaps she was blind drunk – they’d been drinking all day after all – and didn’t know what she was doing. And maybe she simply can’t remember.
So far all that she has said is that she ‘fell off the back’ of the liner.
For now, Miss Longstaff does not seem minded to enlighten anyone further. Save for her balcony appearances, she has been holed up inside her apartment near the city of Malaga for most of the week, refusing to come to the door – quite possibly determined to put her embarrassing moment in t he spotlight behind her.
She will be gratified to learn that she will not have to contribute towards the cost of her rescue, which involved an aircraft and three patrolling vessels. The bill is thought to run to several hundred thousand pounds.
Croatia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs said ‘international agreements’ prevent Croatia from forcing the woman to pay up.
Tellingly, perhaps, this was a great concern of Miss Longstaff. Minutes after the rescue, she asked directly whether she would have to foot the bill. ‘Where will I find the money for that?’ she asked Lovro Oreskovic, captain of the Cavtat, one of the patrol boats.
Mr Oreskovic said: ‘It was one of the first things she asked us. We assured her that she would have nothing to pay.’
Lawyer Mark Lee, a travel litigation specialist, said passengers who missed flights because of the rescue would have to rely on their own travel insurance. And he said: ‘I think it’s unlikely that anyone could successfully recover damages from the lady who jumped – and even if they did, she is unlikely to have sufficient funds to satisfy any awards against her.’
None of Miss Longstaff’s family members are prepared to speak about what happened, though her father called her a heroine and said he could not ‘imagine her jumping’.
Others disagreed. One crew member suggested she leapt after scaling railings on the edge of the deck. The mother of the liner company boss called her a ‘stupid woman’ and insisted she jumped. CCTV footage apparently appeared to support this version. But on Friday, the mystery took another turn with a report that part of the wooden handrail around the ship was missing. Could she have fallen, after all?
A source involved in the investigation told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The CCTV footage shows that she was on the seventh deck of Norwegian Star when she put her bag with belongings on a table. She started to take off her clothes. She did not seem nervous. If anything, it looked rather routine. She stopped for a few moments and then jumped in a very determined way – preventing her hitting the ship or getting sucked in by an engine.’
It is not clear when the alarm was first raised but at some point the liner doubled back to look for her. The search and rescue operation was launched at 2.17am on Sunday after the captain filed a missing person report.
Miss Longstaff, meanwhile, survived by floating on her back – and singing. Her fitness from yoga helped and the water, lit by a half moon, was unusually warm.
Further details of her rescue emerged yesterday. It has been reported that because she wasn’t wearing a life jacket, she was missed by circling aircraft.
On Sunday morning, numerous passing vessels also missed her. By then her voice had become strained. ‘She was waving and trying to shout, but her voice was lost as she was obviously using it during the night,’ said a member of the rescue team.
Miss Longstaff was finally located at 9.40am on Sunday less than a mile from where she disappeared.
‘ She said she didn’t have the strength to keep floating for much longer,’ said Mr Oreskovic. ‘She first took some water, then had soup. We also gave her an isotonic drink and finally a pudding before she fell asleep.’
Two police investigations were launched. In Venice, where the liner eventually docked many hours behind schedule, prosecutor Roberto Terzo oversaw a cursory inquiry. When officers presented him with their findings, he quickly decided to ‘close his file’. A spokesman for his office pointed out that the incident happened in Croatian territorial waters. In any case, he added, no crime was committed, adding: ‘She jumped voluntarily.’
Across the Adriatic in the Croatian city of Pula, officers were rapidly reaching the same conclusion.
Officially, at least, Miss Longstaff’s extraordinary adventure is over. It is thought she will return to work this week.
She had long harboured an ambition to live abroad and moved to Spain after tiring of the British climate, getting a job with private jet operator Net Jets. Former Premier League footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger, Formula 1 racing drivers and socialite Tamara Ecclestone are said to have been among the clients she looked after.
Miss Longstaff and her partner returned home to Torrequebrada on Tuesday– she spent Sunday and Monday night under observation in hospital in Pula, where doctors assessed her psychiatric condition. They then travelled to Venice where she spoke to Italian police, and was seen returning to her hotel with Mr Rayment after dinner.
She was later spirited through Malaga airport by police. Since then she has kept a low profile.
But by Friday afternoon, the couple seemed in the mood to relax and were spotted sunbathing on their terrace.
Miss Longstaff, wearing a pink bikini top and sunglasses and with her blonde hair tied back, sipped from an outsized teacup.
One neighbour said of the couple: ‘They are very nice people. Kay is a beautiful English l ady and always says “Hello”. They are never any trouble.’
Meanwhile, a friend suggested Miss Longstaff was ‘desperately upset’ about disrupting the travel plans of other Norwegian Star passengers. The friend said: ‘She is clearly very embarrassed about what happened.
‘I think it is pretty obvious that there was a bit of alcohol involved and she was not thinking straight.’
‘She jumped in a very determined way’ ‘Alcohol was involved, she wasn’t thinking straight’