The parents of an Indiana girl who fell to her death from the open window of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico contend it was “physically impossible” for the child’s grandfather to lean out of that 11th floor window, as the cruise line has alleged, just before the toddler slipped from his hands. The parents of Chloe Wiegand also accuse Royal Caribbean Cruises of releasing deceptive surveillance images, and allege in their preliminary response filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Miami that the cruise line lied in its recent motion seeking the dismissal of the family’s lawsuit. In its Jan. 8 filing, Royal Caribbean alleged that surveillance video shows the child’s 51-year-old grandfather, Salvatore Anello, leaning out of the open window for about eight seconds just moments before he lifted his granddaughter up to the window, from which she fell to her death on July 8.
