Cruise ship fall woman who spent ten hours in sea is Brit expat who lives in Spain

A WOMAN who fell overboard from a cruise ship in the Adriatic and spent ten hours in the sea before being rescued has been identified as a British expat who lives in Spain.

Air hostess Kay Longstaff, 46, is originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, but now lives on the Costa del Sol in Spain and works as a corporate flight attendant on private jets.

It is believed that Kay fell from the seventh deck of the 92,000-ton Norwegian Star 60 miles off the coast of Croatia shortly before midnight on Saturday and the incident was captured on CCTV cameras.

After the alarm had been raised the liner doubled back and carried out at least four passes of the area in its search for the missing woman.

A coastguard boat and spotter plane eventually found Kay at about 9.45am yesterday (Sunday) and she says she managed to survive the ten-hour ordeal by ‘singing’ and her ‘yoga fitness’ before being rescued

Lovro Oreskovic, captain of the rescue cutter, said that the Briton was exhausted and his crew were ‘extremely happy for saving a human life’.

It is not yet known how she managed to survive all night in the water or if she had help staying afloat from a life ring.

Kay was taken to hospital and a spokesperson said, “We can’t reveal yet when the patient will be released. It will depend on the doctor’s visit during the morning, but it might even be today.”