The daughter of an 80-year-old woman who was left behind on a remote island during a cruise and later found dead has accused the operator of a ‘failure of care and common sense’.
Suzanne Rees was discovered by rescue teams on Lizard Island, part of the Great Barrier Reef, on Sunday. She had been on a day excursion with other passengers the previous day but was not on board the Coral Adventurer when it departed several hours later.
Katherine Rees said she was ‘shocked and saddened’ that her mother, whom she described as healthy, active and a keen gardener and bushwalker, had been left behind. From information the family has received, Katherine said it appears Suzanne fell ill during a hike to Cook’s Look, Lizard Island’s highest point, and was asked to head down the trail without an escort.
‘She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count,’ Katherine said, adding that at some point after that sequence her mother died alone. She said she hoped a coronial inquiry would establish what the company might have done that could have saved her mother’s life.
The cruise was understood to be the first stop on a 60-day voyage around Australia that had departed Cairns earlier in the week. Passengers, who pay substantial amounts for the itinerary, were ferried to the exclusive island for a choice of guided hikes or snorkelling. Suzanne had joined a group hike but broke away to rest when she became unwell.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said it was investigating the death and would meet the vessel’s crew when the ship docks in Darwin later in the week. Amsa was reportedly first alerted to the missing passenger at about 21:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Saturday by the ship’s captain. A search party returned to the island that night, but searches were suspended in the early hours and resumed at dawn, when a helicopter located Suzanne’s body.
Coral Expeditions, operator of the Coral Adventurer, said it was ‘deeply sorry’ for the death and was offering support to the Rees family. Chief executive Mark Fifield said the company was working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities and could not comment further while investigations were under way.
The Coral Adventurer, built to access remote stretches of Australia’s coastline, carries up to 120 guests and 46 crew and uses small tender boats to ferry passengers ashore for day trips. Cruise industry experts say incidents of this kind are rare and that ships generally have strict systems to record which passengers disembark and reboard.
Harriet Mallinson, cruise editor at travel website Sailawaze, told the BBC that sneaking ashore or back on board ‘just isn’t an option’ and that cruise lines take embarkation and disembarkation procedures seriously, often using technology to prevent such mistakes. She described the situation as a ‘shocking — and tragic — one-off’, while acknowledging investigations will seek to determine exactly what happened.
Authorities, the cruise operator and the family are now awaiting the results of formal inquiries to clarify the circumstances that led to Suzanne Rees being left on the island and to determine whether different actions might have changed the outcome.
