INVESTIGATORS are to swoop on the cruise ship which left an OAP to die on a remote island.
The Coral Adventurer is due to dock in Cairns, north-east Australia, tomorrow afternoon, and the crew will be interrogated over how they failed to notice Suzanne Rees, 80, had not re-boarded after a stop at Lizard Island.
Officials from four different government agencies will board the boat as soon as it comes in to dock, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has ordered the ship into lockdown.
The cruise, operated by Coral Expeditions, was on the first stop of its 60-day itinerary when passengers were let off onto Lizard Island, a couple of hundred miles up the coast from Cairns.
Suzanne, a keen walker from Sydney, embarked on a hike to the island’s summit with a group of other passengers but became separated.
She fell ill during the climb and was asked to turn back alone, according to her daughter Katherine Rees.
Suzanne apparently got lost on the way back, while all the other passengers later re-boarded the luxury vessel.
The ship set sail again without anybody noticing Suzanne was missing.
Katherine told The Australian: “Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count. At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone.”
By the time the ship’s crew noticed she was missing that evening, it was already back at sea.
The boat turned around and arrived back to the island around 2am on Sunday.
Coral Expeditions cancelled the rest of the cruise on Sunday, citing the “tragic” death and previous mechanical issues.
An AMSA spokesperson said: “The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has issued a notice to the master of Coral Adventurer prohibiting the embarkation of any new passengers.
“AMSA understands the Coral Adventurer is intending to return to Cairns where AMSA will attend it on arrival.
“Questions about the reason the vessel’s destination has changed or the vessel’s estimated time of arrival are to be directed to Coral Expeditions.”
Coral Expeditions confirmed the vessel was due to arrive in Cairns on Tuesday afternoon.
Coral Expeditions CEO Mark Fifield said Coral Expeditions informed passengers and crew that the cruise would not continue.
He said the decision was due to “the tragic passing of Suzanne Rees and previous mechanical issues”.
“It was increasingly apparent given the circumstances of the last week that we could not deliver on this promise (of the cruise),” he said.
‘She lay there all day’
Yachtie Traci Ayris, who was anchored nearby, said she and her partner heard radio transmissions from the cruise ship during the frantic search.
Ms Ayris told the Cairns Post: “They did headcounts for snorkellers (which we heard) but not for other guests on the island it would seem.
“The last people came down from the track and got into tender then the ship left very soon after that.
“There was not a lot of time between when the last passengers left the beach to when they up anchored.
“We even commented: ‘Wow they left fast.’”
According to tracking data, the vessel sailed off that evening and returned after the missing passenger was reported.
A helicopter began searching around midnight, while seven crew members scoured the mountain by torchlight.
Ms Ayris said she watched the search operation up the mountain until it was called off at around 3am.
She said the helicopter returned at dawn and went directly to Telstra Rock – where Suzanne was last seen.
She added: “We knew that it had found her and the lack of activity told us that she was clearly dead.
“She lay there all day and was finally airlifted [just before 4pm].”
In a post on Facebook, she later wrote: “Never a dull moment at Lizard. Sadly we witnessed a terrible incident where a hiker from a cruise ship was (possibly) left behind and was found later deceased.
“It took all day for repatriation of the poor hiker from the mountainside. It left us all feeling very sad for everyone involved.”
