80-Year-old woman left behind by a cruise ship dies in Australia

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is investigating the death of an elderly woman after she was left abandoned on one of the island of Great Barrier Reef in Australia on Saturday, the 25^th of October 2025.

The Australian pensioner had joined a hiking group which was hiking on the ‘Lizard Island’. It is assumed that she felt tired and decided to stay back to take some rest but unfortunately the group didn’t realize her absence and moved on to board the ship, which sailed at sunset. It was only after the ship had set sail that the crew realized the missing person. The captain raised an alarm with AMSA at 9 pm after which a major search operation was undertaken the same night, but they couldn’t trace the woman until Sunday, 26^th October, when her body was found.

Her family was informed about the tragic incident. The deceased woman had taken a 60-day cruise package costing tens of thousands of dollars and this was the first stop of the cruise. The unfortunate incident occurred on a cruise ship named Coral Adventurer, a 2019 built, operated by Australia based Coral Expeditions. It can accommodate 120 passengers and 46 crew members.