Woman who survived 10-hour in Adriatic Sea after falling from ship may have jumped, claims crew member
The woman who fell from a cruise liner into the Adriatic Sea and survived the 10-hour ordeal in the freezing water on Saturday, may have jumped, according to a crew member's claims, the Daily Mail reported.
The crew member, identified as Daniel Punch, who works on the cruise liner Norwegian Star, said that it was not likely that the woman, Kay Longstaff, had fallen into the sea by accident, reports state.
Longstaff, a 46-year-old air hostess, reportedly fell from the seventh deck of the 92,000-ton Norwegian Star 60 miles off the Croatian coast as it was moving towards Venice on Saturday. Longstaff was rescued nearly 10 hours after she fell; Longstaff said that she continued to float and tried to sing to regulate her body temperature.
"She didn't fall, she jumped. It was on my ship. I spoke [to her] throughout the whole week. She was arguing with her fella the whole time," Punch, in a Facebook exchange, said.
The claim from the crew member comes at a time when Longstaff's former boyfriend said that she had a "troubled past." Forty six-year-old Luke Hopkins, after the incident said that he was "very worried" about Longstaff.
According to the passengers onboard the ship, Longstaff had reportedly argued with her friends before going overboard. Reports state that Longstaff, who lives in Benalmádena, Spain, has spent the evening drinking and had left her passport and her handbag on board before she fell.
The air-hostess also posted pictures of herself during the cruise on Facebook, along with a picture of a man named Craig Rayment, who is believed to be her current boyfriend. The crew said that the woman managed to survive in the water for so long by "singing" and her "yoga fitness," according to reports.
"She said the fact that she practices yoga helped her as she was fit. And she said she was singing to not feel cold in the sea overnight," a member of the crew who rescued her said.
It is not yet clear how Longstaff came to be in the water, however, she says that she "fell off" the back of the ship. The crew launched a frantic search after her disappearance at about midnight local time.
Reports state that the ship went back to the area of the sea where she was last thought to be and then carried out at least four passes in its search for Longstaff. When they could not locate her, a coastguard cutter and Pilatus PC-9 spotter plane joined the search and she was eventually found at 9:45am on Saturday.
Longstaff was later pictured smiling with her rescuers after she was taken out of the sea.
"I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star, and was in the water for ten hours. Then these wonderful guys rescued me," Longstaff said.