Shocking moment cameras captured woman falling off cruise ship before being found alive in water

Warning: This article contains graphic content which some readers may find distressing

The shocking moment a woman fell off a cruise ship before being found alive in the water was captured on camera.

It’s pretty rare that someone falls from one of the big boats out at sea and lives to tell the tale. But Sarah Kirby is one of the few lucky ones after she fell from a ship back in October 2012.

The woman was celebrating her 30^th birthday back in October 2012 when she went onto the stateroom’s balcony on the first night.

She told Inside Edition: “I remember leaning back to look out at the ship and then falling.”

Footage shows her plumetting to the ocean. (Inside Edition)

Then, as the harrowing clip shows, Kirby dropped two stories before ‘ricocheting off a lifeboat’ and plummeting another five stories into the pitch-black sea below.

Footage from infrared cameras show her figure tumbling and falling along the side of the ship.

READ MORE:

BLOKE LIVING ON CRUISE SHOWS HOW MUCH IT COSTS A YEAR

TERRIFYING REALITY OF CRUISES AT NIGHT PUTS PEOPLE OFF

The survivor remembers feeling ‘pure terror’ as she saw the ship sailing off.

“I felt hopeless. Helpless and hopeless. It’s pitch black out there. There's no land. No lights,” she described. Kirby ended up being pretty battered and injured after she managed to tread water for reportedly 90 minutes until she was rescued.

Her friend says her face was 'five times the size'. (Inside Edition)

“I kept praying to God, please don't let me die, please don't let something eat me like a shark,” she added, noting that she was bleeding into the water.

When she was rescued, passengers captured the lifeboat lowering into the ocean to collect her as Kirby was ‘crying and sobbing’ over finally being saved.

The woman admitted to being drunk on the night of celebrating before she horrifically tumbled down from the balcony.

Her friend was so overwhelmed by her appearance after being saved that she cried.

“She didn’t look the same,” her friend and fellow passenger Rebecca explained. “Her face was five times the normal size.”

When Kirby was plucked out of the dark waters and rescued by the staff, the cruise director made an announcement for the ship: “Folks I have some very good news.

“We have found the guest. We have pulled her from the water and we are now bringing her back aboard the vessel.”

YouTube viewers were shocked by the footage as they say they ‘just died 4 times by imagining it’. Others called it ‘one of the scariest things’ they’ve seen as many agree they would be ‘terrified’ in that situation.