Daughter criticises Australia cruise operator after mother dies on island

The daughter of a woman who was left behind by a cruise ship on a remote island and later died has accused the operator of a “failure of care and common sense”.

The body of Suzanne Rees, 80, was found by rescue workers on Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday. The day before, she had been hiking on the island with her fellow passengers but was not on the ship when it left hours later.

Katherine Rees said she was “shocked and saddened” that the Coral Adventurer left “without my mum”, whom she described as healthy, active, a keen gardener and bushwalker.

“From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense,” she said on Thursday.

It’s understood that Suzanne Rees, from New South Wales, was on the first stop of a 60-day cruise around Australia, which had left Cairns earlier this week.

Passengers, who pay tens of thousands of dollars to join the cruise, were transported to the exclusive island for a day trip with the option of hiking or snorkelling.

Suzanne joined a group hike to the island’s highest peak, Cook’s Look, but broke away from the others as she needed to rest.

“We understand from the police that it was a very hot day, and mum fell ill on the hill climb,” Katherine said.

“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.”

Katherine said she hoped a coronial inquiry would “find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum’s life”.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said it was investigating the death and would meet the ship’s crew when it is due to dock in Darwin later this week.

A spokesperson for Amsa said it was first alerted to the missing woman at around 21:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Saturday by the ship’s captain.

A search party returned to the island a few hours later but efforts to find Suzanne were called off in the early hours of Sunday before a helicopter returned in the morning and found her body.

On Wednesday, the chief executive of Coral Expeditions said the company was “deeply sorry” for the death and were offering their support to the Rees family.

“We are working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities to support their investigation. We are unable to comment further while this process is under way,” Mark Fifield said.

The Coral Adventurer caters for up to 120 guests with 46 crew, according to the company’s website. It was purpose-built to access remote areas of Australia’s coast and is equipped with “tenders” – small boats used to take passengers on day excursions.

Incidents like this are rare, and cruise ships have systems to record which passengers are embarking or disembarking, Harriet Mallinson, cruise editor of travel website Sailawaze told the BBC.

“Sneaking ashore or [back] onboard just isn’t an option,” she said.

Cruise lines take these procedures very seriously and have “clever tech in place to prevent such incidents from happening. This is most likely a shocking – and tragic – one-off,” Ms Mallinson added.