A 22-year-old man is lucky to be alive after he fell overboard the Royal Caribbean ship the Oasis of the Seas off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico. The man, who has not been identified, fell overboard in the early morning hours of January 8, 2015.

Stock photo of Royal Carribean’s Oasis of the Sea in Nassau, Bahamas in January 2010.

According to Good Morning America, he was spotted a few hours later. “At about 6:30 a.m., he was then spotted by the Disney Magic cruise ship and picked up in a lifeboat, witnesses said. Disney confirmed the rescue but did not release any other details about the event.”

It is unclear if the crew of the Oasis of the Seas ship from which the man fell knew that the man was missing.  And according to eye-witnesses from the Disney Magic,

“Video of the rescue scene taken by Disney cruise ship passenger David Hearn, of Marietta, Georgia, shows a small orange boat travelling through high waves to pick up the man.

After hearing an on-board announcement about a man overboard, Hearn ran up to the deck to see the rescue operation, he told ABC News. Hearn said he heard from a fellow passenger that the man was located after that passenger heard him screaming from his balcony.

The video of the rescue can be found here.

Bottom Line:
This story has all kinds of crazy – and luck – to it.  First, how does one fall off a cruse ship? I’ve been on 4 cruises and it doesn’t seem that easy to fall overboard. Then the man survived a 30 to 60 foot fall (ore more), and began to tread water (or swim)? And then get lucky enough to scream at another passing by cruise ship and be heard from passengers on a balcony? Wow!