Investigators to board cruise that left elderly tourist, 80, behind on remote island & question crew as boat on lockdown

Investigators to board cruise that left elderly tourist, 80, behind on remote island & question crew as boat on lockdown
Patrick Harrington 3 Nov 2025 https://www.the-sun.com/news/15437134/investigators-board-cruise-left-el...

A nearby boater claimed the cruise ship left the island very quickly

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.