The body of a woman who fell off a cruise ship near the Southern Australian coast has been found. The Victim was 23 years old woman passenger on the “Pacific Explorer”, traveling from Melbourne to Kangaroo Island.
The circumstances of her falling overboard are still under investigation, but it has been determined that she fell off before 11:30 PM on 13th December. She was announced missing by midnight. The cruise ship turned back and started searching for the woman.
Australian Maritime Security Agency(AMSA) dispatched a helicopter in a search and rescue mission. The search area was 25 nautical miles off Cape Jaffa. The Pacific Explorer remained on the scene to assist with the search operation. It was reported that the weather condition during the search operation was poor, with 25-knot winds and 12-foot swells.
The search started and continued through till morning. A helicopter belonging to the New South Wales Police’s aviation command found the victim’s body at 7:00 AM on Wednesday. The body was then recovered from the water and transported to shore. The cruise was canceled, after which the Pacific Explorer returned to Port Melbourne.
The blame is being pinned on the fact that a Man Overboard System (MOB) was not installed on the vessel. Such a system costs $500,000 to install and can detect if a person fell overboard the railings usually by motion detection technology. This technology can detect people falling off even at night so that the vessel can immediately begin its search. The fact that no Carnival Corp.-owned cruise brand installs such technology has invited heavy criticism on Carnival in the wake of the woman’s death.
The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of News2Sea.
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