Several cruise passengers have stated that a jet flew closely over the Harmony of the Seas earlier this evening (around 5:30 P.M. Miami time). At the time of the incident, the Royal Caribbean ship was reportedly “North of Cuba but closer to the Florida Keys.”
The person who initially contacted me from the cruise ship stated that “around 530 pm Miami time it sounded like a jet plane flew about 10 feet above the top of ship. Everyone on the port ran out to their balconies to see what happened. We have pic that looks like smoke off in the distance. No announcements made . . . Lots of passengers yelling from balcony to balcony asking what happened.”
I then checked on Twitter to see if anyone was mentioning the incident. At least one other passenger was tweeting the following:
https://twitter.com/AlwaysSweetLisa/status/1173006001987080194
It seems unusual that the Master of the cruise ship would not make an announcement.
This is not the first time that a jet buzzed a cruise ship.
In June of 2016, Celebrity Master Kate McCue posted on her Instagram page a videotape of a jet making a low high speed pass close to the Celebrity Summit.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHD_67kB_vW/?taken-by=captainkatemccue
A few days later a jet buzzed the Norwegian Breakaway. We reported on the incident after a passenger sent us a video (screen grab right). The YouTube video of the fly-by has been taken down but you can see the dramatic indident on this Fox News video.
There are a large number of guests on the Harmony posting photographs of this evening’s sunset on Twitter and remarking how much they enjoyed the cruise. But there seems to be just one person mentioning the dramatic fly-by on Twitter so far.
Setember 15, 2019 Update: Some of the comments left on our Facebook page seem to dispute the accounts above (but see the comments below). Royal Caribbean Master Johnny Faevelen responded to the first tweet (since deleted) about the incident:
We had no information about this event, but believe it was US as we spotted a aircraft carrier in the area earlier today.
— Johnny Faevelen (@HarleyCaptain) September 15, 2019
If you saw or heard the jet fly-by, let us hear from you in the comment section below, or join the discussion on our Facebook page.