The family of an 18-month-old girl who died after falling from an 11th-storey window on a cruise ship in Puerto Rico has claimed the window was left open in a children's play area. Chloe Wiegand, from Indiana, fell from the Freedom of the Seas on Sunday while the ship was docked in San Juan.
Michael Winkleman, the family's attorney, said the child did not fall from her grandfather's hands as initially reported. Instead, he said the grandfather lifted her to a wall of windows in the 'kid's water zone', believing they were all fixed glass. 'Chloe wanted to bang on the glass like she always did at her older brother's hockey games. Her grandfather thought there was glass just like everywhere else, but there was not, and she was gone in an instant,' Winkleman stated.
Police in Puerto Rico had earlier said the girl apparently slipped from her grandfather's arms while he was holding her out of the window. On Tuesday, Sergeant Nelson Sotelo declined to comment on Winkleman's account, confirming the family would remain in Puerto Rico until the investigation concludes.
Winkleman questioned why an open window was present in a children's play area without any warning signs. 'The family needs answers as to why there would be an open window in a wall full of fixed windows in a kids' play area?' he said. Royal Caribbean Cruises described the incident as tragic but did not respond to requests for comment on the new allegations.
