Cruise cancelled following death of ‘forgotten’ woman left behind on deserted island

Following the incident, the cruise's planned 60-day circumnavigation voyage has now been called off, with full refunds made available to all passengers aboard the terminated voyage.

Mark Fifield, chief executive of Coral Expeditions, said the company had been forced to abandon its plans after it became "Increasingly apparent, given the circumstances of the last week, that we could not deliver on this promise".

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has now imposed restrictions on the vessel, barring any new passengers from boarding.

AMSA officials plan to meet the 112-passenger ship upon its arrival in Cairns to conduct their investigation.

A day after setting off on October 24, the cruise docked for a visit to Lizard Island, where Ms Rees became unwell whilst participating in a planned trek to Cook's Look summit.

According to her daughter, Katherine, the elderly passenger was then instructed to descend the mountain without accompaniment.

The vessel departed Lizard Island at 3.40pm on Saturday, seemingly without having checked all we present.

Ms Rees was not reported missing until approximately 6pm when she failed to appear for dinner service.

The discovery of her absence triggered an extensive search operation involving both sea and land teams.

The Coral Adventurer returned to Lizard Island at approximately 2am, with crew members searching the mountain by torchlight until 3am before resuming at dawn.

Her body was eventually found approximately 50 metres from the hiking trail.

“The ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count. At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone,” Katherine Rees said.

She said that her grieving family had been left “shocked and saddened” that their grandmother had allegedly been abandoned due to a “failure of care and common sense”.

In a statement shared with GB News, Mr Fifield said: “We have expressed our heartfelt condolences to the Rees family and remain deeply sorry that this has occurred.

“The circumstances of her tragic death are the subject of official investigations. We are fully cooperating with those investigations to determine the facts.

“For this reason, it would be inappropriate to comment further on the investigations while they are underway.

“We continue to provide our full support to the Rees family through this difficult time,” he said.

In a separate statement, he explained: "The crew notified authorities that a woman was missing, and a search and rescue operation was launched on land and sea. Following the operation, Coral Expeditions was notified by Queensland Police that the woman had been found deceased on Lizard Island.

“While investigations into the incident are continuing, we are deeply sorry that this has occurred and are offering our full support to the woman's family. The Coral team has been in contact with the woman's family, and we will continue to offer support to them through this difficult process.

“We are working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities to support their investigation. We are unable to comment further while this process is underway,” he told the Daily Mail.

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