COZUMEL – An 8-year-old boy drowned onboard Liberty of the Seas on Monday.

According to a letter from Royal Caribbean to the guests onboard the ship on the Cruise Law News site, the young child drowned in one of the ship’s pools.

The boy was spotted by one of the guests and pulled out. The ship’s medical team responded and performed CPR for more than 1 hour but they were unable to resuscitate him.

Liberty of the Seas is sailing a 7-night western Caribbean cruise. When the boy drowned the ship was sailing a day at sea and heading towards Cozumel, Mexico.

Liberty of the Seas departed Galveston, Texas on December 20 and is expected back on December 27. Other ports of calls include Roatan, Honduras and Costa Maya, Mexico.

Many cruise lines do not have lifeguards onboard so children are able to use the swimming pool with no supervision.

The cruise ship industry is asking whether there needs to be lifeguards on the world’s biggest passenger ships.

Liberty of the Seas can carry 3,630 passengers at double occupancy and is a 160,000 gross ton vessel.

The large ship features an adults only pool in the solarium, a main pool which also hosts pool sports, the H20 Zone which features 2 splash pools for kids and there are also whirlpools and Flowriders.

It’s not yet clear which pool the boy was in when he died.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3373031/Royal-Caribbean-cruise-ship-tragedy-boy-eight-drowns-swimming-pool-board.html