An Australian cruise ship ran aground in PNG. Here's what we know
The Coral Adventurer was carrying 80 tourists into the remote reaches of Papua New Guinea when it came to an abrupt halt on a reef off the Pacific nation's coast.
The Coral Adventurer was carrying 80 tourists into the remote reaches of Papua New Guinea when it came to an abrupt halt on a reef off the Pacific nation's coast.
It was about 90 kilometres from the city of Lae, PNG's second-largest city, when it hit strong sea currents and ran aground on the coral reef.
Passengers and the ship's 43 staff escaped injury — but despite efforts to refloat the Coral Adventurer, it remains stuck off the coast of PNG nearly four days later.
Here's what we know about the voyage and the incident that left the 93 metre-long ship and its 120 people aboard stranded in the remote waters of Papua New Guinea.
Where did the ship run aground?
The ship was passing Dregerhafen Point at 5:30am on Saturday local time when it ran aground north of PNG's Nussing Island.
Vessel tracking data show the Coral Adventurer first neared the coast of PNG on December 20 after leaving Cairns two days earlier.
It then passed between Normanby Island and Fergusson Island and moved north before hugging the coast of Morobe Province before it ran aground near Finschhafen.
That's about 90km from Lae, the capital of Morobe province.
Morobe's provincial governor, Rainbo Paita, told the ABC the Coral Adventurer ran aground while taking a route not usually taken by local operators.
The Coral Adventurer ran aground on a reef near Finschhafen in PNG. (Supplied: VesselFinder)
"Local boat operators know the reef is very high there,"
he said.
The ABC approached Coral Expeditions, but it declined to respond to Mr Paita's comments.
Where are the passengers?
The passengers began travelling home to Australia on Tuesday after Coral Expeditions announced it would fly them back on a charter flight.
They disembarked the Coral Adventurer in the morning and took a passenger boat, the MV Ialibu, to Lae, reaching the city by afternoon local time.
The passengers of the Coral Adventurer were transported on passenger vessel the MV Ialibu to Lae. (ABC News: Scott Waide)
The passengers were expected to fly on to Cairns.
Earlier, on Sunday, they had disembarked the Coral Adventurer and were transported to Gingala village for community-hosted sightseeing activities, while a tugboat attempted to free the vessel.