A passenger has reportedly gone overboard from the Pacific Adventure cruise ship as it approached Sydney, Australia. Nearby vessels and a police helicopter are searching the waters near Sydney as the search for the missing cruise guest continues.
Newspapers in Australia report that P&O’s Pacific Adventure was due in Sydney Harbour before 6 a.m. but as of 7 a.m., remains in waters off what are called the “Eastern Suburbs.” “Pacific Adventure is currently undertaking a search and rescue operation off Sydney after a person overboard alarm was raised at 4 a.m.,” a P&O Cruises Australia spokesperson stated to news.com.au.
Andres Vargas, a passenger on the Carnival Splendor which is sitting idle nearby, sent images of the P&O ship to news.com.au.
New South Wales Police confirmed a search is underway to the Australian newspaper.
“Police are leading the search of waters off Sydney following reports a person was in the water,” a spokesperson told news.com.au.
The report was received just after 4am that “a person had gone overboard” 10 nautical miles outside Sydney Heads.
The Pacific Adventure was sailing on a three day roundtrip cruise from Sydney called the “Tribute To The King” (Elvis). The itinerary started on May 3, 2024 and ends on May 6, 2024.
There is no information currently disclosed how, why or when the person went overboard.
According to cruise expert Dr. Ross Klein, who maintains the definitive list of people going overboard and has testified before the U.S. Congress several times regarding cruise ship overboards, this was the 409th person to go overboard from a cruise ship (or ferry) in the last 24 years. By all accounts, the Pacific Adventure was not equipped with an automatic man overboard (MOB) system. State-of-the-art MOB systems automatically send a signal to the bridge that a person has gone over the rails via a motion detection alarm which can capture an image of the person and then can track the person in the water via radar (using infrared technology at night). Such systems are relatively inexpensive to install (U.S. $300,000 – $400,00) and are readily available on the maritime market.
The Pacific Adventure is owed by cruise giant Carnival Corporation. No cruise ships in its nearly 100 cruise ship fleet have life saving state-of-the-art MOB systems installed. The result is what you see here.
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May 6, 2024 Update:
A number of newspapers are reporting that after a search of around 6 hours, a body was located.
May 15, 2024 Update:
Image credit: Pacific Adventure – Andres Vargas via news.com.au