Family's cruise turns into bloody nightmare after elevator accident
Matt Davis and his family boarded the Carnival Ecstasy on Christmas Day for a spur of the moment trip, the first two nights of which were everything they thought they would be.
But what was supposed to be a carefree getaway turned into a nightmare trip for the Davises and thousands of others on board.
SEE ALSO: Officials: Virginia Tech student went overboard on cruise
The ship was on the final leg of a 3-day cruise from Miami when the incident took place.
Davis and his family were reportedly heading to dinner on the tenth floor at one of the ship's restaurants when they discovered blood pouring down the front of an elevator.
As the couple looked on in pure horror at the flowing blood, which they said sounded like a rainstorm and smelled up the entire room, a crew member allegedly began ushering people back inside the restaurant nearby.
"A crew member or somebody was inside or behind that wall when the elevator came down, and I don't know what happened, but something terrifying happened," Davis said of the incident.
%shareLinks-quote="I look and see there was blood dripping out of the elevator. It was like a real life scene from 'The Shining.'" type="quote" author="Matt Davis" authordesc="eyewitness" isquoteoftheday="false"%
In a statement, Carnival said that, "The company extends its heartfelt sympathy to the family and loved ones of our team member. Appropriate authorities have been notified and a full investigation into the cause of the accident is underway."
A spokesman for Carnival, Vance Gulliksen, told CNN that an employee was working on an elevator when the accident occurred. "The company extends its heartfelt sympathy to the family and loved ones of our team member," Gulliksen said Wednesday.
"Appropriate authorities have been notified and a full investigation into the cause of the accident is underway," he said. Gulliksen didn't provide the name of the deceased employee, but the Miami-Dade Police Department identified him to WFTX as 66-year-old Jose Sandoval Opazo, an electrician on the ship.
"I couldn't wait to get off the ship," said Davis of the incident. "I just wanted to get off."
It hasn't exactly been a red-letter year for Carnival:
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