Man jumps from cruise ship for Instagram video. He survives — and is banned for life
Nikolay Naydev, 27, stood up on the balcony of the Symphony of the Seas railing as the ship was docked in Nassau, Bahamas, last week. His friends held onto him as they egged him on, a video posted on Instagram Friday shows. Naydev jumped from the ledge and waved his arms and legs as he fell around 100 feet down toward the water below. An Instagram story from one of Nayev’s friends, Konstantin Kryachun, shows Naydev treading water after the fall.
In an Instagram comment Naydev said, “I was still drunk from the previous night. When I woke up I just decided to jump.” According to Naydev’s comments, a small boat picked him up and he had to take a flight back to Miami, where the ship left from. He said he could barely walk for three days.
“Never felt more alive haha,” Naydev said in a comment.
Royal Caribbean banned Naydev and his friends from cruising with the company for life and are considering taking legal action against them.
“This was stupid and reckless behavior,” said Owen Torres, manager for Royal Caribbean corporate communications.
On the same day that Naydev uploaded the video, a teen died after falling from Deck 8 of Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas ship. Laurent Mercier, 16, was trying to climb from one balcony to another when he fell onto what appears to be a striped asphalt surface on the pier alongside the ship in Labadee, Haiti.
This story was originally published January 17, 2019 at 11:20 AM.
