The father of a 20-year-old Florida man who jumped from the 11th floor of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship 57 miles from shore last week believes his “master diver” son is still alive, according to a report.
Francel Parker told the Daily Sun that his son, Levion Parker, works on a commercial fishing boat and said several flotation devices were thrown at him on April 4.
“As soon as he walked away, I prayed for him,” the father told the outlet. “I was confident that the prayers I said for my son were being heard. I rely on the word of God. I believe he is alive.”
The U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday called off its search in Cuban waters for the missing 20-year-old, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard’s 7th District public affairs team confirmed. The 18-story ship was just hours from the port of Fort Lauderdale after four days of sailing from Cuba to the Bahamas’ Grand Inagua Island when Levion jumped around 4 a.m.
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According to the Sun, there was an argument before Levion jumped, but his father told the outlet that he had not argued with his son before. Levion’s father said his son had alcohol on the ship, but it was not a suicide, the Sun reported.
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“We don’t drink. I would like to know how my son got so much alcohol,” the elder Parker told the outlet.
The minimum drinking age on a Royal Caribbean cruise departing from the United States or the Caribbean is 21. The company could not immediately be reached for comment on how Parker was served.
Another passenger on the Liberty of the Seas cruise told the New York Post that Parker’s father confronted the 20-year-old and his 18-year-old brother, Seth, after they got out of the ship’s hot tub .
“His dad was blaming him for being drunk, I guess,” Bryan Sims told the outlet. “When we got to their house, he told his father, ‘I’ll sort this out right away.’ And he jumped out the window in front of all of us.”
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Sims told the Post that he spoke with the Parker brothers before Levion jumped overboard, noticing that the older brother was “pretty drunk.” He said Levion talked about his jobs on yachts and fishing boats.
Deborah Morrison, another passenger, told the Post that “there was a lot of screaming and the crew was alerted immediately” after Levion jumped.
“His family was horrified, just beside themselves,” she told the outlet. “I can’t even begin to imagine what they’re going through.”
“The ship was moving pretty fast because it was during the night and we were traveling a long distance,” Sims recalled to the Post. “We were screaming and his father was calling for everyone to stop the ship… Many of the crew members were up above and they started launching the small boats to search after we turned around and went back into the area, I guess.”
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Royal Caribbean told the Post in a statement that the ship’s crew “immediately initiated a search and rescue effort alongside the U.S. Coast Guard, which took charge of the search.”
The next morning was “bleak,” passenger Amy Phelps Fouse told the Post.
“So many people came out of their cabins to look at the sea, hoping they could help find the person,” she said.
Parker’s father owns an air conditioning company and the family was on a cruise as guests of Florida-based air conditioning wholesaler Tropic Supply, the Daily Mail reported. Dozens of their subcontractors had been invited to the cruise for the company’s 50th anniversary.
According to the Washington Post, approximately 386 people fell overboard on major cruise lines between 2000 and 2020. A study by the Cruise Lines International Association found that only 28% of those who fell overboard between 2009 and 2019 have survived.
Original article source: Florida man thinks son is alive after jumping from cruise ship: report
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