An elderly passenger aboard a Disney cruise sailing around Australia is presumed dead after he allegedly leapt overboard early Saturday morning.
The 73-year-old man, whose identity was not released, disappeared around 4:30 a.m. Saturday while traveling on the “Disney Wonder” ship in Australia, Victoria Police told local outlets.
At the time, police said the boat was in the Tasman Sea, which is between New Zealand and Australia’s southeast coast and regarded as one of the most turbulent seas in the world.
Once the ship’s crew realized the passenger was missing, they quickly turned around and conducted an exhaustive search and rescue mission for upwards of five hours, but no body was found, according to reports.
Victoria Police told local outlets that “[i]t is understood the man died after he jumped from a cruise liner into waters.”
Police are not treating the man’s death as suspicious.
Mitch Tablot, another passenger on the cruise who did not know the victim, said that the mood for the remainder of the five-day cruise has been “somber” and “just a bit eerie.”
“The captain came on and updated the boat and basically stated that there was someone, a passenger had fallen overboard, but that they were unable to find then,” he told local outlet 7 News.
The Post reached out to the Disney Cruise Line for comment.
The “Disney Wonder” cruise departed on Nov. 20 for a five-day, one-way trip from Melbourne to Auckland, and is one of the last Disney Cruise Line is chartering in the Land Down Under for the foreseeable future.
The final Disney cruise out of Australia will depart from Sydney on Jan. 30 and sail one-way to Honolulu.
