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P&O passenger killed in jet-ski accident
April 7, 2006

A 20-year-old woman from Victoria has been killed in a jet-ski accident in Malaysia.

A spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Teresa Gambaro, says two other Australians suffered broken bones and back injuries when two jet-skis collided off the coast near Panang late yesterday.

She says the High Commission is making urgent inquiries and consular support staff have spoken to the family.

The three were on a cruise with P&O Pacific Sky.

A spokesman for P&O says the two women who suffered minor injuries are on their way back to Australia.

He says the company has sent its condolences to the dead woman's family.

ABC News Online

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Aussie killed in Malaysian powerski crash
By Jordan Chong
April 7, 2006

A 20-year-old Victorian woman has died in a power-ski crash while on a cruise off the coast of Malaysia.

Another two Victorian women, aged 19 and 20, who were also on the other power-ski, suffered minor injuries in the crash.

A Mexican man riding with the woman who died was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The women were passengers on the Pacific Sky cruise ship, which was on a stopover in Penang as part of a seven-night cruise from Singapore.

Malaysia's Star newspaper identified the woman as Catherine Shepherd, but the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) was unable to confirm this.

According to a local police officer, the woman died of "internal injuries".

"A post-mortem by forensic pathologist Dr Bhupinder Singh found that Shepherd died from internal injuries. The impact of the crash was so great that one of her fractured ribs punctured her heart," State CID Chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Azman Yusof told The Star.

"Two Red Crescent personnel, who were on stand-by at the request of the operator, administered first aid but failed to revive Shepherd," he added.

The Mexican man, who suffered head injuries and a fractured left ankle, is in a serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit at the Gleneagles Medical Centre, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper also reported the power-skis were supplied by an unlicensed operator.

P&O Cruises Australia, the parent company of the Pacific Sky, said in a statement that it was co-operating with local authorities investigating the incident.

A DFAT spokesman said the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur was making urgent inquiries and consular support staff had spoken to the family of the dead woman.

"The Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur is making inquiries,'' the spokesman said.

"The Malaysian High Commission in Canberra is also liaising with us and relatives of the dead woman and those injured,'' he said.

The spokesman said the two Victorian women who suffered minor injuries were on their way back to Australia.

The Age / AAP

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In Sydney, chanel 7's Today Tonight program, has been reporting drugs are rampant on P&O ships since the coronial inquest of that dead woman found onboard in 2002.

They even went to the extent of hiring someone to pose as a passenger, then they filmed him entering his cabin and finding an envelope with the title "with complements staff of P&O" he then opened the envelope for the camera and produced drugs.

Incidently the hired this passenger to sail on Pacific Star and they showed other clips of passengers behaving like hooligans in a bar. The bar was later identified as a bar in Vila and not on the ship.

I dont beleive that P&O staff hand out drugs to passengers as this current affairs program made out.

There are so many factors that do not make sense. 1. On all the cruise's I have been on no letters are signed by "P&O staff" - they usually are with complements Executive Purser etc. 2. Letters are never posted under cabin doors. 3 why would the reporter immediately go into the toilet to open the letter on the toilet seat? He knew what was in it before hand.

Although I disagree with that TT report, can anyone tell me what a south pacific cruise is really like. I have only sailed on Aurora, Oriana and Sapphire Princess.

After seeing video evidence of the passengers I would not want to go on a cruise with young hooligans. I am 24 myself, but I enjoy relaxing cruises with sensible people who dont get out of control and behave like animals once effected by alcohol.

If that is what passengers are really like on south pacific cruises I would not go on one. Even the discription of those riffraff and pesants described in the corinial inquest that drugged that poor woman, I would not want to go on a crusie with rubbish and trash like that as fellow passengers.

An interesting experience I had was on 12 night Sapphire Princess. There were a handful of people my age from 23 to 30 and we all had a great time, and even got mixing with the crew and theatre performers who were the only ones in the night clubs.

I found the majority of passengers on Sapphire Princess were older than 50 and went to bed after 10pm. The ship was literally dead apart from us young ones in the night club.

The only problem I found were teenagers 13 to 18 constatnly being hunted out of the public rooms by security. They would come in, start smoking, feet on tables, dressed in wet swimmers - not long after they arrived people complained and security was quick to get rid of them. Even by the pool at night we witnessed a 14 year old girl who would perform strip tease for her other teenage friends and collect ice from the Horizon Court and place it (we all know where I mean).

Generally allot of passengers were not amused by these teenagers roaming the ship and wondered where their parents were. Unlike what I hear with P&O south pacific cruises, I can tell you that Princess staff acted very quickly to deal with that teenage group that were causing problems each night.

I would not mind trying Pacific Dawn (Regal Princess) when it operates out of Sydney. It is a good ship. The only problem for me is value for money and will you get just as a relaxing holiday as P&O UK and Princess. If those reports of hooliganism are true and it is widespread then it would be best to avoid it in peak seasons and shorter voyages.