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Major air and sea search operation under way after couple fall overboard off Australia

Despite couple being missing for more than 24 hours police say there is still hope the couple may be alive

Rob Williams
Friday 10 May 2013 11:37 BST
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The couple, Australian citizens from New South Wales state, were discovered missing this morning after the Carnival Spirit docked at Sydney's Circular Quay, at the end of a 10-day journey.
The couple, Australian citizens from New South Wales state, were discovered missing this morning after the Carnival Spirit docked at Sydney's Circular Quay, at the end of a 10-day journey.

A major air and sea search operation is underway after a couple fell from a cruise ship last night as the liner prepared to dock in Sydney.

The couple, Australian citizens from New South Wales state, were discovered missing this morning after the Carnival Spirit docked at Sydney's Circular Quay, at the end of a 10-day journey.

New South Wales Police Superintendent Mark Hutchings said surveillance camera footage showed that the couple, Paul Rossington, 30, and Kristen Schroder, 27, fell from the ship's mid deck on Wednesday night when the ship was about 65 nautical miles off the coast of Forster, a city 185 miles north of Sydney.

"This is a tragic event at the moment, but we're holding out hope we might be able to find these people alive," Hutchings told reporters.

According to reports investigators were having the video enhanced in a bid to determine whether the couple had jumped or had fallen by accident, Hutchings said.

The ship has around 600 surveillance cameras that are constantly monitored, although no one reported seeing the fall at the time of the incident at around 8.50pm on Wednesday.

The search for the couple began at around 11.30am and was still underway as darkness fell. Despite the couple being missing for more than 24 hours Detective Hutchings said there was still hope that the couple may be alive.

“It’s game on and we are going to be pulling out all stops to try and find these people,” he said.

According to reports investigators were having CCTV footage of the incident enhanced in order to determine whether the couple jumped from the boat or fell.

No life preservers were missing from the ship, Hutchings said. A missing life preserver might have indicated that one of the missing passengers had attempted a rescue.

Jo Meehan, spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search, said an airplane, a helicopter and police boats were searching a 1,000-square-kilometer (300-square-nautical miles) area of sea.

The couple and seven of their family and friends were among 2,680 passengers on a South Pacific cruise.

The ship's last stop was Mare Island in New Caledonia, which it left on Monday, bound for Sydney. The couple were discovered missing as passengers disembarked, said Peter Taylor, spokesman for the ship's operator, Carnival Cruise Lines.

"The guests in question were traveling with family and friends, and initial reports indicate that the couple was last seen onboard the vessel last night," Taylor said in a statement.

"The ship immediately initiated standard missing person procedures, including a full search of the vessel, as per protocol," he said.

Police said in a statement there were alerted about two hours after the ship docked.

Carnival Cruise Lines is a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator.

Carnival Corp. has been plagued by a series of high-profile problems in recent years. Last year, the Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people. Also last year, the Costa Allegra caught fire and lost power in the Indian Ocean, leaving passengers without working toilets, running water or air conditioning for three days. Costa is a division of Carnival Corp.

In February, passengers aboard the Carnival Triumph spent five days without power in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine-room fire disabled the vessel. Those on board complained of squalid conditions, including overflowing toilets and food shortages.

Carnival Corp.'s representative in the South Pacific region, Ann Sherry, is chief executive of Carnival Australia, which represents 80 percent of cruise lines in the region.

She told an Australian parliamentary inquiry into cruise ship safety in February that only two passengers had disappeared overboard from cruise ships in the South Pacific since she took her job more than five years earlier.

She said both disappearances had been fully investigated by authorities and there had been no suspicious circumstances in either case.

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