Disney Cruise ship passenger shares 'miracle' moment dad dived in to save child
A cruise passenger watched on in disbelief as a young child suddenly plunged from the fourth deck of a Disney Dream cruise and into the open sea - moments before her father dove in amid a desperate attempt to save her life.
The terrifying incident unfolded on Sunday as the ship was sailing back to Fort Lauderdale from the Bahamas. Alarms blared and chaos briefly gripped the deck as the 'man overboard' alert was sounded, triggering a major emergency response from the crew.
Elinor Finkelstein, a New Yorker aboard the cruise, witnessed the drama play out, but said crew members did a great job of "not panicking at all." Finkelstein said: "(They) kept everyone calm. No frenzy or screaming. Everyone was concentrating on the scene. It was an absolute miracle." It is not yet known how the child fell over the safety barriers.
The passenger told how an emergency "Mr M.O.B" alert rang out over the intercom - code signifying a person overboard. Finkelstein told ARC Rochester: "I first heard the Mr. Mob announcement over the speakers probably between 11.15 to 11.30 in the morning. I went up to the pool deck and everybody was standing around watching.
"Seeing the boat go out and seeing that rescue happen was incredible. I had no idea that a cruise ship could turn around so quickly. It was a successful rescue, and by about 11.50ish, the boat was back to the ship. Everyone was cheering, and it was definitely a miracle."
In a clip shared by Dewayne Smith, another passenger onboard the cruise, the rescue vessel was seen bringing the girl and her dad back aboard as shocked guests watched on from the railings. Crowds then burst into applause as the pair returned to the ship.
Finkelstein added: "It looked like the two individuals in the water were very close together, but they were pretty far from the ship. It was very hard to tell amongst the waves, but you could see these two dark circles and you could just make the assumption that that was them.
"Just a few minutes after the rescue, a message went over the entire ship explaining [that] two individuals were rescued from the water. We don't know at this time who the exact individuals were."
A Disney Cruise Line spokesperson told The Mirror: "The crew aboard the Disney Dream swiftly rescued two guests from the water. We commend our crew members for their exceptional skills and prompt actions, which ensured the safe return of both guests to the ship within minutes.
"We are committed to the safety and well-being of our guests, and this incident highlights the effectiveness of our safety protocols."
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Daily Mirror
23-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
‘I am a loo historian – you'll never guess what Tudors used to wipe their bums'
Our 19th century super sewers turn 150 this year, but before the Great Stink, festering cesspits had to be cleared out by hand. The Mirror digs into the smelly history of toilets… Poo now travels under London in a sewer tunnel so wide, you could drive three buses side-by-side through it. But before this new super sewer opened this year, Londoners were still flushing their waste down 1,300 miles of a creaking brick-built Victorian sewage system, with ornate cathedral-sized pumping stations. However, when the Public Health Act of 1875, received Royal assent 150 years ago, in August 1875, the drainage system built by civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette in the city was the super sewer of its time. It was built after the horror of The Great Stink of 1858, when the River Thames became so polluted with raw excrement, that during one long hot summer, the water levels dropped, and the malodorous smell was so noxious, it shut the Houses of Parliament. Nght soil workers, or gong farmers carted away the city's filth from 200,000 festering cesspits and outdoor privies, to be used as fertiliser. 'There was no integrated sewerage network system, so all the dung heaps had to be dug out by gong men,' explains Dr Dave Musgrove, content director of BBC History Magazine and the HistoryExtra podcast. 'It was an unpleasant job but reasonably well-paid, because the excrement was valuable. If you weren't rich, you had your pit, you dug it out, and it was taken away in carts and used for manuring fields.' The 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys wrote extensively about his chamber pot and whether it had been emptied into the cesspit beneath the house by his servant. 'He also used to relieve himself in the fireplace,' says Dr Musgrove. 'But he tells a story where he goes down into his basement and is very disappointed to step into a great heap of turds, because his neighbour hasn't emptied his pit and it's leaked into his.' A 19th century population explosion meant the night soil men couldn't keep up with the volume of fecal matter, and piles of untreated human waste either leaked or were dumped on the shores of the Thames, turning it into an open sewer. Along with human corpses and rotting vegetation in the waterways, this was a toxic disaster waiting to happen. 'By the early 19th century, more people were wanting to use this up-and-coming toilet flushing technology. But it meant the city had lots more liquid matter,' explains the historian. 'So they start digging sewers, digging underground or even just overground ones, and it's going into rivers and the water system is becoming contaminated.' Before 1875, people had no idea that dirty water caused the deadly cholera epidemics that raged in the country's crowded cities. Dr Dave Musgrove, who also hosts HistoryExtra Toilets Through Time podcast series, says: 'Throughout this period we get a slew of public health legislation, where people start to recognise that it is an issue.' Frightened city dwellers blamed the thousands of deaths on the foul miasma that hung heavy over London and other cities. In 1853 outbreaks of cholera in London, Gateshead and Newcastle killed over 10,000 people. The following year another epidemic hit South London After one particularly virulent outbreak on August 31, 1854, when 127 people living around Broad Street in Soho died, a local anaesthetist, John Snow, suspected contaminated water was to blame, but nobody believed him. He traced it to a water pump on Broad Street, where a child had been taken ill with cholera and its nappies had been cleaned in a cesspool of water close to the Broad Street well. The local parish agreed to remove the pump handle as an experiment – and the spread of cholera was stalled. From then on, new sanitary laws made it compulsory for local authorities to provide sewers, control water supplies and regulate the overcrowded and unsanitary lodging houses in rookeries where most poor people lived in Victorian times. Most importantly, all residential construction had to have running water and an internal drainage system. But flushing toilets took ages to catch on in Britain. 'The person who is often cited as having invented the first one was the godson of Queen Elizabeth I, Thomas Harrington, who came up with what he called the 'Ajax' on a lad's weekend in the 15th century.' Although the Queen had one installed, nobody thought his idea would catch on. The ruined Grade I listed Wingfield Manor in Derbyshire is also home to a flushing toilet built in 1596. And it's thought Henry III's 13th century garderobe in York's Clifford's Tower had a flushing spout that ran water down the lavatory hole and out of the tower. But while we were still going alfresco in philistine Britain, the world 's first flushing loos were actually invented in Bronze Age Crete. 'The Minoan Palace of Knossos had a very advanced plumbing system that was built around 2000 BC,' says Dr Musgrove. Cesspits are gold dust to archaeologists, as they reveal so much about the people who used them. 'The people who built the Neolithic site of Stonehenge lived in a village a couple of miles away called Durrington Walls in a settlement of round houses,' Dr Musgrove continues. 'Human poo was excavated, which was riddled with parasites – possibly from eating meat that hadn't been cooked well – but there was no particular designated toilet area.' That changed with the Roman invasion. You can still visit the well preserved Roman communal loos at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire or Housesteads Roman fort at Hadrian's Wall ,where soldiers sat chatting side-by-side at the communal latrines while rainwater flushed away their waste. After the Romans leave things go downhill. 'In the early medieval period British society sort of fractures, but excavations in Coppergate in York in the 1980s found evidence of Viking toilets – and the famous Jorvik turd.' The Vikings lived in tightly packed areas, and had yards where people just dug holes and did their business, with little wicker dividing walls. Dr Musgrove adds: 'You can see the mineralised coprolite Viking 9th century poo at the museum, where they've recreated those toilets with Bogar who's been sitting on this loo for 40 years.' The Jorvik turd also tells us a lot about the Viking diet. 'It's quite a big poo – 5cm wide by 20cm long,' chuckles Dr Musgrove. 'Whoever produced it enjoyed a diet rich in bread and meat but not many vegetables.' In the Middle Ages toilets were holes in the ground in communal spaces over a river or a stream. 'They were basically doing their business into the water,' says the historian. 'But there weren't concentrations of people living in one place, so sewage wasn't much of an issue.' Community toilets continued in the Tudor period when Henry VIII built a two-story loo for courtiers at Hampton Court called the House of Easement, which held 28 people at once. 'There were private toilets for important people in castles,' adds Dr Musgrove. 'But those were still quite basic spaces in the wall and human waste would drop down a pipe into a cesspit – or just drip down the outside of the walls.' We've come a long way since those smelly days, but before we congratulate ourselves on having super sewers, transporting our effluent safely away from our homes, it's important to scotch the myth of our ancestors chucking urine-filled chamber pots out of over-hanging medieval windows onto people's heads on the cobbles below. 'Even hundreds of years before the 1875 act, communities did their level best to separate themselves from their faeces,' says Dr Musgrove. 'There were many by-laws to stop us fouling our own spaces even in the Middle Ages, so we shouldn't imagine the streets of Britain's cities were just covered in filth all the time.' Something our leaky water utility companies could no doubt learn from even now. The back story on loo paper Anyone unlucky enough to have used Izal tracing paper loo paper at school will appreciate how important a nice soft double ply is. The first loo paper appeared in 1887 when Joseph C. Gayetty of New York sold medicated flat sheets called The Therapeutic Paper, and the first perforated rolls were sold in 1890 by the Scott Paper Company. But it took a long time for these to become popular because most people were accustomed to using any old paper. 'Once we started printing stuff from the 15th century onwards, people quite quickly started using it for the purposes of wiping – and sometimes as a political gesture,' explains Dr Musgrove. 'If there was something you disagreed with, you might offer that to people to wipe their bottom.' Before that, the early Romans loved a communal khazi and it's thought they also shared a communal sponge. But Dr Musgrove admits: 'We don't actually know whether the sponge on a stick was used for wiping Roman bottoms – or for cleaning the toilets.' Moss was very popular in the Middle Ages for bum wiping. 'There was a thriving trade in bringing moss into medieval towns because it was a valuable product – nice and soft on your backside. Archaeologists have also found evidence of rags in toilet soil.' But the hardcore Tudors used 'oyster and mussel shells – more for scraping than wiping,' according to Dr Musgrove. Alarmingly, holly has also been found in some cesspits. 'That would have made the user quite anxious,' the historian says.
Daily Record
17-07-2025
- Daily Record
Air India crash investigators probe captain's conduct after he 'deliberately cut off fuel' to jet
Black box recordings reveal Sumeet Sabharwal remained composed as his first officer, Clive Kunder, appeared to panic when the supply to both engines was suddenly cut. Experts probing the Air India crash are looking into the captain's conduct The American investigators are looking into revelations that two fuel switches were manually shut off moments after takeoff. Black box recordings reveal Sumeet Sabharwal remained composed as his first officer, Clive Kunder, appeared to panic when the supply to both engines was suddenly cut. According to the Wall Street Journal, sources close to the US side of the investigation have said the voice cockpit recording suggests Sabharwal turned off the switches, one after the other, exactly a second apart. According to American pilots who reviewed the Indian report, Kunder was flying the plane at the time and likely concentrating on keeping the Dreamliner steady. 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Sabharwal, a senior Air India pilot, had also taken bereavement leave following the death of his mother, though Ranganathan said he was 'medically cleared' to return to duty before the doomed flight. A former colleague described Sabharwal as 'a thorough gentleman' and said he had been considering early retirement to care for his 90-year-old father. 'He was actually considering early retirement in the next couple of years,' they said. Air India declined to comment on Sabharwal's mental state. However, an official at parent company Tata Group insisted the captain had not taken any recent medical leave and that both pilots had passed Class I medicals, including evaluations of psycho-physical fitness, within the last two years. Kunder, just 28, had logged more than 3,400 flight hours. He was flying the jet at the time of the crash. On Sunday, a preliminary report released by the Indian authorities led to questions about why the pilot would have manually turned the switches off, and whether it was a deliberate act or a mistake. US officials reviewing the preliminary crash investigation told the Wall Street Journal a black box recording revealed a tense exchange in the cockpit. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. First Officer Kunder reportedly asked: 'Why did you cut off?' The captain then replied: 'I didn't.' Sabharwal stayed eerily calm as the aircraft plunged. Fuel levers are not simple push buttons. To operate them, pilots must lift each lever upward against a locking guard before flipping it. At takeoff, both were inexplicably turned off, triggering speculation that the act was either a calamitous error or something worse. Captain Ranganathan believes it was the latter. 'These selectors aren't sliding types. They are always in a slot,' he said. 'You have to pull them out or move them up or down, so the question of them moving inadvertently doesn't happen. "It's a case of deliberate manual selection." When asked whether one pilot may have shut off the fuel levers knowing the consequences, Ranganathan replied: 'Absolutely… It had to be deliberately done.' The possibility of a pilot-induced crash has enraged relatives of the victims, many of whom suspect a cover-up to protect the airline and authorities. Ameen Siddiqui, 28, whose brother-in-law Akeel Nanabawa died in the crash alongside his wife and four-year-old daughter, said: 'This report is wrong. We don't accept it. They want to blame dead pilots who can't defend themselves.' CCTV footage from the airport confirmed the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) - a backup power source - shortly after takeoff. Two minutes later, a pilot transmitted: 'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.' In December 2018, the US Federal Aviation Administration warned airlines that fuel switches in some Boeing aircraft had been installed with locking mechanisms disengaged, raising the risk of accidental shut-off. But Air India said it did not carry out inspections because the FAA advisory was not mandatory. Miraculously, one passenger survived. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, seated in 11A by the exit, escaped with his life. His brother, Ajaykumar, 35, seated across the aisle in 11J, perished in the crash. The aircraft was en route from Ahmedabad to Gatwick. Among the dead were 11 children, including two newborns. An Air India spokesperson said: 'Air India stands in solidarity with the families and those affected by the AI171 accident. We continue to mourn the loss and are fully committed to providing support during this difficult time. "We acknowledge receipt of the preliminary report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. Air India is working closely with stakeholders, including regulators… We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses.' The airline said it could not comment on specific details due to the ongoing investigation.
The Sun
11-07-2025
- The Sun
Warning to anyone planning a BBQ on their balcony this weekend over tiny small print that could see you charged £100s
THOSE planning a BBQ over the weekend might want to watch out for a rule that could cost you hundreds. With another sunny weekend on the horizon, it's a good time to make sure you're up to date on the small print to avoid hefty fines. 2 2 The rule specifically applies to people planning on hosting the cookout on a balcony in a leased building. Those who fail to abide by the rules could be fined more than £300. While it's not against the law to hold a barbecue on a balcony, it is generally frowned upon by building management. The balcony itself could be made of combustible materials, making it a fire hazard, in addition to the nuisance it could cause neighbours. Barbecue Team Leader and Buyer at BBQ specialists Hayes Garden World, Ian Hodgett told The Mirror: "It's important to remember that many balconies are often made of combustible materials so pose a real threat to the safety of those BBQing and those living around them." If building management has prohibited the use of BBQs on balconies, the consequences of failing to abide by the rules could be severe. Ian said you could be left having to pay for damages, having deductions made from your deposit, or even face eviction. Balconies aren't the only place that face restrictions on the summery social event. Barbecuing near a main road could also put you at risk of hefty fines. If the smoke drifts into the road and blocks drivers' visibility, you could be issued with a Nuisance Abatement notice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The 2C method which stops flies plaguing your home and ruining your BBQ This carries a fine of up to £5,000 if you fail to comply with the notice, and could result in you being taken to court. In addition, Ian advises: "It's also best to avoid placing your BBQ near benches, trees, and sheds in your garden where there is a higher risk of a fire spreading." Restrictions are also in place on some land owned by the National Trust. Usually the properties will have dedicated areas where you are allowed to get a barbecue going. These are usually on concrete surfaces, as the dry grass can make it a high risk for fire to spread. It becomes particularly dangerous during peak temperatures over the summer, and could lead to a blanket ban across the National Trust land in some cases. Ian advises grillers to "check whether your local council has issued a Public Spaces Protection Order which bans the use of a BBQ on National Trust Land." Fines for breaching these rules are usually council-specific. For example, Kirklees Council charges a fixed penalty notice of £150. Failure to pay this initial fine could result in a court conviction and a fine of up to £1,000. Local councils may also impose restrictions on parks in the area. Typically they will allow disposable BBQs in a designated area if precautions are taken to reduce fire risk. In London the rules are generally more stringent, with Brent Council imposing fines of £100. Even if councils don't impose restrictions on BBQs, it is crucial to make sure you don't leave any litter behind - including disposable BBQs. This could leave you facing fines of up to £2,500 or a fixed penalty notice if decided by the local council. Alternatively littering carries a standard fine of £75.
