Passengers aboard a cruise ship that ran aground in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Saturday will be flown back to Australia, after efforts to refloat the vessel failed.
The Australian-flagged Coral Adventurer became stuck on a reef off the eastern coast of PNG at around 05:25 local time on Saturday.
The 80 passengers and 44 crew members are safe and unharmed, and the passengers, who departed from Cairns in northern Australia on 18 December, will be flown back there.
The same ship made headlines earlier this year when it left behind an elderly woman on a remote island on the Great Barrier Reef. Her body was found the following day, and an investigation is ongoing.
In the latest incident, the Coral Adventurer was transiting through Morobe, Madang and Sepik provinces when it hit strong sea currents and sailed onto the reef, Morobe's Police Commander Chief Superintendent Samson Siguyaru told the ABC's Pacific Beat programme.
