Kay Longstaff, 46, survived 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea before being rescued on Sunday (August 19).
This week, the mother of Andy Stuart, the cruise company’s president and chief executive, called up the Telegraph to accuse Longstaff of being a “stupid woman” claiming she had caused huge disruption to fellow passengers while costing NCL hundreds of thousands of pounds, the Telegraph reports.
Suggestions Longstaff had been arguing with her boyfriend before she left the seventh deck of the ship surfaced on Monday. Others have suggested it was impossible for her to have “accidentally” fallen from the ship.
The Telegraph reports Stuart’s mother said he had been upset by reports that Longstaff fell – something she stated herself. She complained that her son’s company was being wrongly blamed for the incident.
His mother said: “She didn’t fall off. She jumped. This has cost Norwegian Cruise Line $600,000. This stupid woman.
“I spoke to Andrew at lunchtime. What he said was ‘this is fake news’. He said that she couldn’t have fallen. You would have to take steps to climb over the railings. He said she jumped in the water.”
The Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, said its investigation into the incident was continuing. On Sunday night, a spokesperson for the body said CCTV images had “left a suspicion whether it was a jump or a falling off”.
Stuart declined to comment on the contents of the call with his mother or the incident while an investigation remained ongoing, the Telegraph reports.
