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A cruise ship has run aground off Papua New Guinea with dozens of passengers onboard weeks after the same vessel left behind an Australian grandmother to die on an island during a stopover.
The Coral Adventurer struck a reef about 30km off the coast of Lae, north of the PNG capital Port Moresby, at about 6am on Saturday.
It’s understood 80 passengers and 43 crew members are onboard.
An officer from the PNG Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre has boarded the vessel to assist crew manage the incident.
While the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has reported everyone is safe, the incident has sparked a fresh controversy for the vessel’s operators, Cairns-based Coral Expeditions.
‘All passengers and crew are safe,’ a spokesman told the Daily Mail. ‘An initial inspection indicates no damage to the vessel. The incident has been reported to authorities and will undergo further official inspections to the hull and marine environment.’
The Daily Mail has asked Coral Expeditions when the passengers will be able to safely leave the ship and head ashore.
The current voyage departed Cairns on December 18 and was due to end on December 30.
Cruise ship the Coral Adventurer (above) has hit a new crisis after running aground off PNG on Sunday just two months after an elderly female passenger died when she was left behind on an island
The Coral Adventurer struck a reef about 30km off the coast of Lae, north of the PNG capital Port Moresby at about 6am on Saturday stranding around 123 people onboard
The cruise ship struck a reef off the coast of Lae (above)
Coral Expeditions is still reeling from the death of NSW woman, Suzanne Rees, 80, who died after being left behind on Lizard Island in October during a stopover on a $80,000-a-ticket circumnavigation of Australia.
Ms Rees had been hiking to the summit of the Great Barrier Reef island’s highest peak but left the group to return to the ship after becoming too tired to continue.
Serious questions were raised surrounding the five-hour delay in launching a search for the grandmother after she failed to reboard.
Ms Rees’ grieving family also demanded answers.
‘From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense,” her daughter Katherine Rees said.
More to come.
Suzanne Rees, 80, died after being left behind on Lizard island during a Coral Adventurer cruise around Australia
