Two wildly divergent stories are unfolding as to how a gay man happened to plummet off the side of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise ship on Friday morning.
Bernardo Albaz, 35, and his husband Eric were reportedly taunted by homophobic staff members throughout their trip.
Albaz’s attorney Mike Winkleman claims the married couple heard employees say, “Hi, lipstick,” which the couple took to be derogatory verbal abuse. Ongoing incidents like these apparently culminated in an angry exchange between staffers and the couple, which led to security visiting their stateroom.
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According to Winkleman:
“Bernardo ended up getting in a huge altercation and ended up in his cabin where he was furious and ultimately Royal Caribbean security came to the scene. As a result of the altercation in his cabin Bernardo falls off his balcony onto the life boat area.”
However, in a statement, Royal Caribbean claims Albaz deliberately threw himself off the ship after a domestic spat:
Our onboard security team responded to the guest’s stateroom after a neighboring guest complained about a domestic dispute on the guest’s balcony. Our staff did not have a physical altercation with the guest and were unable to prevent his jumping from the stateroom balcony.
Royal Caribbean is deeply saddened by this event. We will continue to provide assistance to the family as well as law enforcement.
“Royal Caribbean claims Albaz jumped because of a domestic dispute and a suicide,” Winkleman says. “It was anything but that.”
The ship, which sails to the Caribbean from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, had left last Saturday on a seven-day trip.
Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2015/11/08/passenger-filmed-falling-from-cruise-ship-argued-with-staff-over-homophobic-jokes-5487853/#ixzz3r0pSogPH
After an extensive air and sea search, Albaz’s body has yet to be recovered.
A passenger filmed Albaz’s final moments and posted them to YouTube. That video is below.
Warning: Viewers may find the content of this video disturbing.
h/t: Daily Mail
