According to a report from the Hellenic Coast Guard, on local time October 10, a female passenger who fell overboard from the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship "Odyssey of the Seas" in the Ionian Sea west of Piraeus was successfully rescued after approximately 20 hours. When rescued, the passenger was conscious and showed only mild symptoms of hypothermia, which was described as a miracle.

The "Odyssey of the Seas" has a gross tonnage of 167,704, flies the flag of the Bahamas, is 1,138 feet (347 meters) long, and can carry approximately 4,200 passengers. The ship had departed from Mykonos and was en route to Naples, Italy. The overboard incident is believed to have occurred at about 0600 on October 9, when the ship was approximately 72 nautical miles southwest of Zakynthos. The passenger had a lifebuoy from the cruise ship. According to unconfirmed reports, she grabbed the lifebuoy and fell from the side of the cruise ship. The specific cause of the fall has not yet been released.

After the incident, the "Odyssey of the Seas" immediately conducted circling searches in the relevant sea area. The Hellenic Coast Guard dispatched two patrol boats and a helicopter, and the Hellenic Air Force also sent an aircraft to participate in the search and rescue. The Coast Guard also coordinated nearby vessels to assist in the search.

In the early morning of October 10, the Portuguese-flagged container ship "MSC Rossella III" (2,742 TEU), which was sailing from the port of Piraeus to the port of Gioia Tauro, spotted a flashing light attached to a lifebuoy, determined that there might be a person in the water, and immediately notified the Hellenic Coast Guard. Subsequently, a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol boat located the overboard passenger based on the information provided by the container ship and administered first aid. The passenger was taken ashore and then immediately sent to the hospital.

According to statistics from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), between 2009 and 2019, a total of 212 man overboard incidents occurred on cruise ships worldwide, with only 48 people successfully rescued, a survival rate of about 28.2%; between 2009 and 2025, the reported rate of man overboard incidents on cruise ships has dropped to fewer than one case per approximately 3 million passengers carried.

Although overboard incidents are a low-probability event in the cruise industry, once they occur, the search and rescue success rate remains relatively low. In this incident, the person overboard drifted in the water for about 20 hours before being rescued and showed only mild hypothermia, making it an extremely rare successful rescue case.

At present, the specific circumstances of the incident are still under further investigation.