Body found after Pacific Adventure cruise passenger goes overboard

Marine police searching for a cruise passenger who went overboard off Sydney Heads have retrieved a body from the water.

Police searching for a cruise passenger who went overboard off Sydney Heads have retrieved a body from the water.

The P&O Pacific Adventure with more than 2600 passengers on board was due to dock in Sydney Harbour at 6am on Monday morning, but was instead stopped about 20km outside the heads to join the marine search.

About 10.30am, Police Marine Area Command discovered the body of a man in waters off La Perouse. 

A P&O Cruises Australia spokeswoman earlier said the family of the person who went overboard was being cared for by the onboard team.

The cruise ship will now make its way to dock at White Bay, with the ship expected to leave later on Monday night on a four-night voyage to Queensland.

The Pacific Adventure and Carnival Splendor are stopped outside Sydney Heads to search for a person missing from the Pacific Adventure cruise ship.

Passengers on the cruise ship were alerted to a ‘man overboard’ announcement just after 4am and the ship immediately went into ‘search and rescue’ mode.

A passenger said he was awoken by an announcement of “man overboard, man overboard”.

“First of all we dropped a couple of strobe lights so we knew where it was,” Greg told 2GB radio station.

“We got woken up by the ‘man overboard, man overboard’ call, and from there it’s been all on for a couple of hours now.”

The cruise ship docking has been delayed while authorities search for the passenger. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

The captain of the cruiseliner told passengers the identity of the person was known.

“The travelling companions of the guest are aware of what has taken place and are being supported by our crew,” he told passengers in an announcement on Monday morning.

“We immediately commenced a search operation and the ship has remained in the area searching throughout this morning along with other nearby vessels deployed to the area…Every effort is being made to find our guest and I’m sure you can understand we will be delayed arriving back in Sydney.”

A maritime boat near the Overseas Passenger Terminal on Monday morning. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

NSW Police and P&O Cruises Australia confirmed waters off Sydney Heads were being searched after the person overboard alarm was raised at 4am.

“Police are leading the search of waters off Sydney following reports a person was in the water,” a NSW Police spokesman said.

“Emergency services received reports a person had gone overboard off a ship 10 nautical miles off Sydney Heads.

The P & O Pacific Adventure was due to dock in Sydney Harbour on Monday morning. File picture

Two tugboats also made their way outside the heads to join search efforts.

A spokeswoman from P&O Cruises said the person overboard alarm was raised at 4am and the ship remained onsite searching along with other vessels.

Western Sydney local Corey Hazelton - who is currently on board the P & O cruise ship, said passengers were awoken in the early hours of the morning by an announcement over the loudspeaker.

“Everyone was in their rooms and it was about 4am and they made a man overboard announcement three times,” Mr Hazelton told the Daily Telegraph on Monday morning.

“They said ‘man overboard, man overboard, man overboard,’ and then there was a ringing noise.”

It is understood the passenger - who Mr Hazelton said was said to be a man in his 40s, went missing from “deck seven”.

“Everyone got up and started looking out their windows to see if they could see anything,” he said.

“Everyone was just looking around and over the balcony. It was pretty dark and the water was pretty rough. It’s raining out here.

“We were then just waiting for further announcements from the captain. They’ve been pretty quiet about it.”

The cruise ship passenger said he saw at least “seven or eight” rescue boats and helicopters searching for the missing person.

“At about 10am they also made an announcement. They called for first aiders to deck four,” he said.

A man due to pick up passengers in the harbour was warned of delays following reports of a passenger falling overboard.

“I’m just on my way down to the cruise terminal this morning to pick people up and the passengers on the ship have told me ‘Don’t rush the ship stopped outside the heads and somebody has gone overboard.’” Brad told 2GB host Ben Fordham.

The Carnival Splendour also stopped initially outside Sydney Heads during search efforts, but docked earlier on Monday.

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