Is a video showing a man falling through a hole in a cruise ship waterslide authentic? No, that's not true: The video of a real ABC news report of the Icon of the Seas waterslide accident was edited to add a digitally-created fake clip at the beginning. The original video only shows water flowing from a hole after the man plunged to the deck. No authentic video of the man falling has been shared publicly.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on August 9, 2025, under the title #news #foryou #usa🇺🇸. The caption on the video read:
Passenger injured on water slide aboard world's largest cruise ship
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of TikTok by Lead Stories)
The original video (arhived here) was aired on ABC's Good Morning America on August 8, 2025. It opens with video of water flowing through an open hole, without the falling man:
This is a screenshot of the hole shown later in the ABC video:
(Source: screenshot of YouTube by Lead Stories)
A frame-by-frame examination of the clip showing the man falling through the hole does not appear to be realistic. The man's arms are extended before, during, and after he would have been falling through the narrow hole.
(Source: screenshot of TikTok by Lead Stories)
(Source: screenshot of TikTok by Lead Stories)
(Source: screenshot of TikTok by Lead Stories)
There is also a jump-cut in the video just after the man disappears off the screen, which indicates a video edit.
A spokesperson for the Royal Caribbean Group, which operates the ship, issued a media statement (archived here) making it clear the injured person did not fall through the hole:
Our team provided medical care to an adult guest when acrylic glass broke off a water slide as the guest passed through the slide. The guest is being treated for his injuries. The water slide is closed for the remainder of the sailing pending an investigation.
The incident happened on Saturday, August 9, 2025, after the ship departed Florida on a 7-day cruise in the Caribbean.
The man was reported to be in stable condition in a hospital.
