The body of a man who had gone overboard on an Australian cruise ship has been recovered and an investigation will be launched into the grim situation. The passenger had been aboard a P&O cruise ship that was departing near the Sydney Heads when fellow passengers were alerted that there was a man overboard just ten miles off the coast.
The P&O cruise line was originally supposed to depart around 4 PM this Monday but was delayed until later into the night. Finally, the cruise ship departed in the early morning of the following day. Around 4 AM, the cruise line had reached ten nautical miles off the Sydney coast, when passengers were awoken by a “man overboard” alarm. A passenger on board the P&O cruise ship described to Sydney radio station 2GB the moment he got the call about a man being overboard, which he stated woke him and his fellow guests up early and lasted for a few hours. While the alarm had been sounded, the P&O cruise ship was forced to remain in the waters, while the search and rescue took place. A local chauffeur who was en route to pick up returning passengers from the ship was told to take his time due to the man overboard incident.
Once the other passengers and crew members were alerted of the tragedy, NSW Police were immediately contacted and began searching for the overboard passenger. Numerous amounts of resources were implemented into the search including a helicopter from the NSW Police Marine Area Command. At 10:30 AM, the body of the overboard passenger had been discovered in the waters nearby by local authorities. The man did not survive the fall.
Once the situation was under control, P&O cruise lines confirmed that the ship was clear to return to the dock. The cruise ship had just returned from Queensland’s Morton Island, northeast of Brisbane.
