A female passenger of a cruise ship sailing from Shanghai to South Korea and Japan survived 38 hours in the sea without a life jacket after losing her balance and falling overboard.
Ms Fan boarded the ship with her family in China’s eastern port city of Shanghai for a five day trip just last week and it was her own physical strength that saved her life.
After a walk along the deck one evening by herself, Ms Fan leaned too far over the railing, lost balance and fell a height that has reportedly been compared to seven storeys. The 32 year old screamed for help but the deck was empty due to it being so late in the evening.
Fan’s Father reportedly tried to check the ship’s surveillance camera’s to find out what had happened to his daughter once they noticed her absence, however the footage only showed her walking back and forth.
During the 38 hours that she floated in the choppy waters of the East China Sea, the lady from Shanghai managed to swim out of the way of large ships approaching and floated on the surface by waving her arms underwater.
After Ms Fan was saved by a passing fishing vessel, she then took another boat back to a hospital on the mainland where she was told she was healthy but suffered blisters from jellyfish stings.
She stated afterwards that she is a strong swimmer as she had started swimming at the age of five and that she had previously graduated from a sports university.
Chinese coastguards have said that it was this had saved her life and that she was incredibly lucky to survive the fall from the fourth deck.
What do you think of the news? What would you do in this situation? Do you think she had a seriously lucky escape? Leave us your thoughts!
