Cruise ship horror: Eyewitness tells of woman’s last moments

PASSENGER statements and CCTV will be at the centre of an investigation into an overboard incident that claimed the life of a Brisbane woman on a P&O cruise ship when it docks tomorrow.

• Victim from Brisbane
• ‘Worst thing I’ve seen’
• Dark side of cruising

QUEENSLAND police officers will begin investigating an overboard incident that claimed the life of a Brisbane woman on a P&O cruise ship when it docks at Portside Wharf tomorrow.

Due to arrive at 6am in Brisbane, officers are expected to obtain CCTV footage and take witness statements for the investigation, on behalf of the coroner.

By the time officers arrive, onboard security staff may have already begun interviewing people and securing footage to give to police.

Crew on board Pacific Dawn during the search. Picture: Supplied

The Brisbane woman, 47, was watching onboard activities just moments before she plunged to her death from the top deck of the Pacific Dawn cruise ship, an eyewitness has claimed.

The passenger and her husband were in an area where people were playing table tennis when she walked over to a deck about 5m away and was seen leaning over a railing of the vessel, the witness said. The witness, along with several other nearby passengers, had thought she was vomiting.

P&O cruise ship Pacific Dawn.

In an instant, a family holiday turned to tragedy, witnessed by her distraught husband who collapsed in shock, according to the witness onboard.

“(She was) vomiting outside, near the table tennis area” said a guest on-board, who asked not to be named.

“Leaning over, not far over, then she fell. When she went over he collapsed.”

The ship circled for hours in a frantic but unsuccessful search for the woman after the incident about 150 nautical miles off New Caledonia about 4pm on Thursday.

The ship remained in the area to search again after sunrise yesterday, before the search was abandoned about 7.30am. It’s understood there will not be another search in the area where she fell.

A post was made from an unofficial Pacific Dawn Facebook account this morning, about the incident.

“I heard a couple of passengers from deck 14 (I was on deck 12 next to the Edge desk at the time) calling out “Man overboard” “Man overboard” and a couple of other passengers also called out the same thing,” a person named Stu wrote.

“I and quite a few other passengers walked/ran up to deck 14 to see if they could see anything.

“I saw two life boys (sic) in the water and a few minutes later the officer of the watch came on and said “Man Overboard” “Man Overboard”.

“After that the Pacific Dawn turned around and started heading back to where the “Man Overboard” happened to search for the passenger who has gone missing.”

“Pacific Dawn spent from 5pm 12th April 2018 till 8am 13th April 2018, searching for the passenger who fell overboard.”

A P&O spokesman said expert advice was that “survival after this length of time in difficult sea conditions and after a full night at sea was not considered possible”.

The captain gave the news to other passengers in a heartbreaking announcement over a public address system.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I need to let you know that we have been unable to locate our guest,” the captain said.

“We are still in the area of the incident, and the weather conditions with the swell three to four metres high, as you can see outside … the strong wind made our search extremely challenging.

“As a result we have now made the extremely difficult decision to continue our journey towards Brisbane.

“I know I speak on behalf of all of you when I say our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”

The woman is believed to have been travelling with her husband and children.

A letter to passengers from P&O yesterday said her family was being looked after by “special care trained crew” as the ship made its way back to Brisbane.

It is expected to dock at Hamilton Portside at 6am tomorrow, making it a 62-hour journey for the grieving family since the woman fell.

“Officers will meet the Pacific Dawn when it arrives at the Port of Brisbane on Sunday morning to conduct investigations and work with other agencies as required,” a Queensland police spokesman said yesterday.

“No suspicious circumstances have been identified at this time.”

A passenger said yesterday: “Staff have said it’s not easy to fall off as the barricade is quite high and solid. Other than that they aren’t saying how it happened.”

One passenger posted an image on Twitter of a life ring floating in the water and said the situation was 'horrendous'. Twitter/Jonathan Trevithick

This image shows approximately where the woman fell from on the Pacific Dawn. Picture: Channel 9

Another passenger said the captain made an announcement about 75km/h winds and a 4m swell shortly before the woman fell.

Another passenger described the atmosphere on-board the ship as “very sad, solemn and quiet”.

The ship, which has room for 1546 guests, left Brisbane on Saturday on a seven-day round trip to Vanuatu.