MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An 80-year-old cruise passenger has been found dead on a Great Barrier Reef island, a day after she was accidentally abandoned there by the ship’s crew.
The passenger’s daughter Katherine Rees on Thursday accused the cruise company Coral Expeditions of a “failure of care and common sense” that left her mother 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 last Saturday at Lizard Island. She planned to hike with other passengers to a mountain lookout.
The ship left the resort island around five hours before reporting her missing late on Saturday, officials said.
“We are shocked and saddened that the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island after an organised excursion without my Mum,” Katherine Rees, who also lives in Sydney, said in a statement.
“From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense. We understand from the police that it was a very hot day, and Mum felt ill on the hill climb. She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count. At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone,” the daughter added.
The crew of a search helicopter spotted Suzanne Rees’ body the next day about 50 meters (55 yards) off the hiking trail to the lookout, The Australian newspaper reported.
She appeared to have fallen from a cliff or slope, the newspaper said.
Katherine Rees said she hoped a coroner’s inquiry would “find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum’s life.”
Police said in a statement a coroner would investigate the “non-suspicious death.” The coroner’s court also confirmed the death had been referred for investigation.
Coral Expeditions chief executive Mark Fifield said his company was fully cooperating with official investigations into the death. He said it would be inappropriate to comment while those investigations were underway.
“We have expressed our heartfelt condolences to the Rees family and remain deeply sorry that this has occurred,” Fifield said in a statement.
“We continue to provide our full support to the Rees family through this difficult time,” he added.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, a safety regulator, is investigating why Rees may not have been accounted for when passengers were boarding at Lizard Island.
The tragedy is also being investigated by a workplace safety watchdog.
Rees was first noticed missing when she didn’t appear in the ship’s dining room for dinner, the newspaper said.
The cruise ship returned to Lizard Island early Sunday morning.
Australia’s safety standards for its Great Barrier Reef tourism industry came under intense scrutiny after American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan were abandoned at sea during a group scuba dive in 1998. The tour boat crew didn’t realize they were missing until two days later. The Lonergans’ bodies were never found.
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press
