Husband’s disgust over party boat name change after wife’s death
The husband of a woman who died from noxious fumes while locked inside a cubicle on an All Occasion Cruises boat on Sydney Harbour has slammed the company for renaming the vessel.
NSW
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The shattered husband of Shalina Abdulhussein, gassed by noxious fumes on an All Occasion party boat on Sydney Harbour, has been left sickened to discover the owner painted over the vessel’s name Lady Rose calling it My Way.
Daljit Singh, who is still numb with grief after learning his wife was locked in the vessel’s toilet when excessive levels of hydrogen sulphide filled the cubicle, said: “It’s disgusting, they’re just trying to … get on with business.”
Clearly overwhelmed, he went on, “No matter how much you beg and pray, it will never bring her back, I’m realising that now.
“I’m struggling every day that she’s not here, I’m still getting counselling, I realise, and I’m coming to terms with, the fact that it (life) will never be the same.
“There are too many investigations, it’s all so long-winded I don’t feel I’ll ever get answers about what happened to her, I feel it will be years before we know.”
Toxicology reports reveal mother-of-two, Shalina, 39, a legal assistant from Berowra Heights, suffered a heart attack when overwhelmed by poisonous gases from the vessel’s sewage tanks and struggled to unlock the latch in the windowless cubicle in the vessel’s hull. She stood scant chance of surviving on February 2.
Boat company All Occasion Cruises’s millionaire property developer owner Joe Elias told The Daily Telegraph it was not his fault when questioned about the incident.
“Definitely not my fault,” he said.
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Mr Elias, 39, maintained his boat was, “always in good condition” but he ploughed $1 million into a “full refit inside and out.”
Despite initial reports of safe gas readings, police later revealed there were dangerous levels on board the Lady Rose, prompting an investigation by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) investigators to determine whether any national laws had been broken.
A private surveyor has given My Way permission to leave the marina in Harwood on the Clarence River near Yamba and cruise to Sydney Harbour within a week.
The redesigned vessel must be inspected by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and given the all clear before operating commercial cruises again.
Five of the All Occasion cruise boats were found in a joint AMSA, NSW Police and Roads and Maritime investigation to have pipes which could illegally pump effluent into the Harbour — but all except My Way were granted permission to continue operating on a commercial basis by the authority after passing inspections.