Sister of teenager who fell off world’s largest cruise ship begs for answers
The sister of a teenager who went overboard on the largest cruise ship in the world is speaking out against "misinformation" amid pleas for answers.
Savannah Ropich took to Facebook on Saturday to lash out at a woman who claimed she was also on board the Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas when Savannah's brother, Sigmund, 19, went overboard. The woman reportedly said the captain announced that video showed the young man jumping overboard into the water.
"She has no clue what is going on with the whereabouts of my brother and his situation," said Savannah, who lived in Texas. She and her family are begging for answers and trying to maintain hope in the light of the family's tragedy after Sigmund went overboard earlier this week.
Sigmund was described as a "reserved" teenager (Facebook)The woman Savannah was replying to is on TikTok as @brunausaflorida_official and claimed a sick passenger had to be dropped off in the Cayman Islands. She said this happened during the search for Sigmund, who fell off the boat off the coast of Cuba on Tuesday, August 29.
The US Coast Guard is set to investigate once the ship returns to the US. Savannah urged people to report the woman, and said she would soon delete the post about the woman altogether so she could focus on her missing brother.
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She has been blocking "rude and insensitive" comments for days as she's posted updates with photos and stories of her brother's disappearance. She's hoping to encourage authorities to continue to search for the teen.
Crews searched for hours for signs of Sigmund (Facebook)Sigmund, a college student, was on the cruise with friends when he fell overboard the 230,000-tonne vessel at around 9pm. It was just the second day of a 7-day cruise which had departed from Port Canaveral, Florida.
Crew on board spent around three hours scouring the water using spotlights, watchers and small craft after the ship turned around to retrace its route. Royal Caribbean said it had been working with the US Coast Guard, but the military confirmed search and rescue responsibilities fall under Cuban jurisdiction.
Distraught passengers shared the terrifying moment Sigmund fell overboard, with a member of staff heard in one video saying: "We have reports of a man overboard. We have slowed the ship down, we have turned around and we are heading back to the position we had at that time.
Sigmund was on board the Wonder of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world (Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)"We will start the search and rescue operations with our rescue boats, we will have our crew out and about to look for anything."
After the incident, a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean said: "On August 29, a guest sailing on Wonder of the Seas went overboard. The ship's crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities."
Savannah paid tribute to her missing brother on Facebook, saying: "He is a son, a big and a little brother, a cousin, an uncle, a nephew, a friend, a homie, a classmate, a co-worker, a neighbour!!!... I just want my brother home."
She added that there is an "army rooting for him to come home". Sigmund was known as a "reserved" teen who was "always cool, calm and collected", with Savannah saying her family had been kept largely in the dark about her brother's disappearance.
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