The mother of a 5-year-old girl who fell off of the Disney Dream cruise ship in June\u00a0will not face a criminal charge, the Broward State Attorney\u2019s Office decided.<\/p>\n
The family, who live outside of Florida, were taking photos about 11:30 a.m. June 29 on Deck 4, which features a wraparound exercise track and some areas with porthole windows<\/a>. The girl climbed onto the railing in front of one of the windows, turned around to face her mother and tumbled backward, 49 feet down into the ocean while traveling from the Bahamas to Port Everglades at about 12 mph, according to a State Attorney\u2019s Office close-out memo obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Monday.<\/p>\n Many other portholes on the ship the mother had taken photos with were blocked with glass barriers, and she assumed the openings on Deck 4 were similarly enclosed, the memo says she told investigators after the incident.<\/p>\n The girl\u2019s father didn\u2019t see the fall; he jumped overboard to rescue the girl<\/a> after hearing his wife scream, according to the memo and an earlier statement from the Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n The ship\u2019s man overboard alarm sounded only after the father jumped, and crew members tossed life rings into the water as the ship began to turn around to recover the father and daughter, the memo said. A rescue boat entered the water at 11:40 a.m. and picked them up nine minutes later.<\/p>\n In total, the girl and her father, 37, were treading water for about 20 minutes before they were treated by medical staff aboard the ship, the Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office previously said.<\/p>\n