Royal Caribbean teenage passenger dies after fall from the balcony

A 16-year-old cruise passenger died after falling off deck 8 of Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas ship on Friday, Sun Sentinel reported.

Laurent Mercer, who was on holiday with his family, tried to climb from one balcony to another, according to the Broward Medical Examiner's statement to Sun Sentinel, as he fell on what appears to be a striped asphalt surface next to it. of the ship and died.

The 5,400 passenger ship was placed in Labadee, Haiti, the ship's first stop on a seven-day western Caribbean sailing from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. Sun Sentinel reported that Mercer was originally from Wallis and Futuna, a French island nation in the Pacific.

"We are fed up with the loss of one of our guests in a tragic accident," said Owen Torres, director of communications for Royal Caribbean, in a statement sent to the Herald.

People aboard the ship discussed the incident on Cruise Critic, a forum for cruisers. A passenger shared pictures of an area on the pier next to the ship that was blocked by barriers.

In a statement to Sun Sentinel, Broward Medical Examiner's Office said the ship's medical team attempted CPR, but the passenger had suffered head trauma and was declared dead at 11:42.

Only last month was a crew member at Harmony of the Seas died after going overboard when the ship sailed from Fort Lauderdale to St. Maarten on Christmas week.