South Australians abandoned by airlines and cruise lines are struggling to make it home safely
South Aussies trapped on a cruise ship and cut adrift by the world have finally found a friendly port but another group’s plans to escape from Nepal has been dashed again.
SA News
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A group of South Australians is still stranded in Nepal after the Kathmandu airport abruptly closed today.
But in Honolulu a second group of South Australians celebrated disembarking from the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jewel, which arrived in the city on Sunday.
The 280 Australian passengers on the Norwegian Jewel – including Sunday Mail and The Advertiser photographer Tom Huntley – were rejected from making landfall by New Zealand, Fiji, American Samoa, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Tahiti over the last week, despite having no cases of coronavirus on-board.
Mr Huntley said “the anxiety of passengers is still extremely high” as they now had to make their way from the US to Australia and then to their homes via Sydney.
“Rumours are spreading that our flight to Sydney will not take place and we will be flown to San Francisco,’’ he said. “One family from Melbourne are planning to hire a minibus to drive through the night so they get home safely.’’
A spokeswoman for the company said passengers were being disembarked but it was necessary for them to stay on-board until three hours before their chartered flight left. “We are flying passengers from Honolulu to Los Angeles; Sydney; London; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Frankfurt, Germany,’’ the spokeswoman said. “All guests will remain on-board until three hours prior to their scheduled flight.’’
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Another cruise ship, the Ocean Atlantic, is stranded off South America, with 150 Australians on-board, and has been denied access to three nearby ports.
In Nepal, along with other travellers, the Australian group had organised flights from Kathmandu today but were left stranded when the city’s airport abruptly closed. The travellers created a Facebook page on Saturday, with dozens of Australians facing a similar plight reaching out across the world for help.
Initially flights out of the country were difficult to book, or were cancelled, before the Government abruptly closed the airport.
One of the men, News Corp Australia national personal finance editor Anthony Keane said the Australian embassy in the city was helping with their plight and that of others stranded. “We are now working with the helpful Australian embassy in Nepal to track down other stranded Australians and hopefully get us all home soon,’’ he said.