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Kay Longstaff: cruise ship plunge survivor 'was not upset before incident' says father

Kay Longstaff
Longstaff is reported to have told a rescuer that singing and her fitness from doing yoga helped her survive in the water. Photograph: Reuters

The father of a British woman who survived for 10 hours in the sea after plunging from a cruise ship has cast doubt on claims she was going through a distressing period before the incident.

The passenger, Kay Longstaff, was rescued by the Croatian coastguard on Sunday several hours after going overboard about 60 miles (100km) offshore as the Norwegian Star ship headed to Venice.

Her father, Ron Longstaff, said he was still trying to understand what had happened but said the suggestion that she was going through a distressing period was “rubbish”, adding that he had been “sitting in the sun with her a few weeks ago”.

“I’m watching the news and trying to get to the bottom of what happened,” the 76-year-old told the Press Association from his home in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

Speaking briefly to local media in Croatia after her rescue, Longstaff, 46, said she felt very lucky to have survived the ordeal and thanked her rescuers. She told the Croatian news channel HRT: “I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for 10 hours ... I was sitting at the back of the deck.”

She is reported to have told a rescuer that singing and her fitness from doing yoga helped her survive in the water.

Neither the cruise operator, Norwegian Cruise Line, nor Longstaff, a former Virgin cabin crew member who now works on private planes, have made any further public comment about the incident.

Andy Harmer, the UK and Ireland director of the Cruise Lines International Association, said cruise holidays were one of the safest forms of travel. “There are no known cases of someone acting responsibly who has accidentally fallen over the railing of a cruise ship,” he said.

A Croatian coastguard vessel and an aircraft were scrambled at 6.30am on Sunday morning after the alarm was raised. Rescuers would later discover that Longstaff, who lives in Benalmádena, on Spain’s Costa del Sol, had already been in the water for several hours at that point.

They were able to locate her after looking at the ship’s CCTV footage and pinpointing the exact time she went into the water, then correlating that with the ship’s location.

After entering the water just before midnight on Saturday, Longstaff was found at about 9.40am on Sunday about a mile from the place where she had plunged down. She was taken to hospital in nearby Pula.

Lovro Oreskovic, captain of the Cavtat coastguard rescue ship, said his crew were extremely happy for saving a human life.

A spokeswoman for Norwegian Cruise Line said: “We are very happy that the individual, who is a UK resident, is now safe and will soon be reunited with friends and family.”