Disney cruise: Authorities reveal how girl, 5, plunged 45ft overboard before dad jumped in to save her

As the Disney Dream sailed toward Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday, the young girl was sitting on the fourth-deck railing while her parents played shuffleboard nearby. The family had completed a four-night voyage through the Bahamas aboard the $900 million cruise when disaster struck and the girl slipped backwards, plunging 45ft into the ocean.

The dad leapt from the cruise to save his daughter, treading water for up to 20 minutes before both were pulled aboard the ship’s rescue boat. Initially, it was not clear what had led to the girl’s fall.

Now the Broward County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the child had lost her balance and tumbled through a porthole, CBS Miami reports. “This family is so blessed,” a sheriff's spokesperson said, keeping the family’s identity anonymous. “It's great to be able to respond to good news rather than what could have been a tragic outcome.”

Passenger Monica Shannon told CBS the railings had “little divots and spaces” that made it possible for the girl to climb up. Shannon was on the third-floor deck at the time, one below where the girl plunged from.

She added: “I kind of see something really fast flew by, I didn't think anything of it. I just figured it was maybe a part of the show or just the experience, but about five minutes later we heard that someone flew overboard.”

One clip shared on TikTok shows the girl in the boat wrapped in a towel while being embraced by a rescue worker. In another, the girl’s sodden father could be seen breathlessly clutching onto a rescuer.