MELBOURNE, Australia — An 80-year-old cruise passenger has been discovered useless on a Nice Barrier Reef island, a day after she was by chance deserted there by the ship’s crew.
The passenger’s daughter Katherine Rees on Thursday accused the cruise firm Coral Expeditions of a “failure of care and customary sense” that left her mom Suzanne Rees to die alone.
Suzanne Rees, a Sydney resident, was on the second day of a cruise circumnavigating Australia when she disembarked the Coral Adventurer final Saturday at Lizard Island. She deliberate to hike with different passengers to a mountain lookout.
The ship left the resort island round 5 hours earlier than reporting her lacking late on Saturday, officers mentioned.
“We’re shocked and saddened that the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island after an organised tour with out my Mum,” Katherine Rees, who additionally lives in Sydney, mentioned in a press release.
“From the little we have now been instructed, evidently there was a failure of care and customary sense. We perceive from the police that it was a extremely popular day, and Mum felt unwell on the hill climb. She was requested to go down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently with out doing a passenger rely. During that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone,” the daughter added.
The crew of a search helicopter noticed Suzanne Rees’ physique the subsequent day about 50 meters (55 yards) off the climbing path to the lookout, The Australian newspaper reported.
She appeared to have fallen from a cliff or slope, the newspaper mentioned.
Katherine Rees mentioned she hoped a coroner’s inquiry would “discover out what the corporate ought to have executed which may have saved Mum’s life.”
Police mentioned in a press release a coroner would examine the “non-suspicious demise.” The coroner’s courtroom additionally confirmed the demise had been referred for investigation.
Coral Expeditions chief government Mark Fifield mentioned his firm was totally cooperating with official investigations into the demise. He mentioned it might be inappropriate to remark whereas these investigations have been underway.
“We have now expressed our heartfelt condolences to the Rees household and stay deeply sorry that this has occurred,” Fifield mentioned in a press release.
“We proceed to supply our full help to the Rees household by way of this tough time,” he added.
The Australian Maritime Security Authority, a security regulator, is investigating why Rees could not have been accounted for when passengers have been boarding at Lizard Island.
The tragedy can be being investigated by a office security watchdog.
Rees was first seen lacking when she didn’t seem within the ship’s eating room for dinner, the newspaper mentioned.
The cruise ship returned to Lizard Island early Sunday morning.
Australia’s security requirements for its Nice Barrier Reef tourism business got here beneath intense scrutiny after American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan have been deserted at sea throughout a gaggle scuba dive in 1998. The tour boat crew didn’t notice they have been lacking till two days later. The Lonergans’ our bodies have been by no means discovered.
