The elderly Australian man who is presumed dead after falling 25m into rough seas from a cruise ship was missing for more than four hours before his disappearance was reported.
The 84-year-old's fall into the Tasman Sea from the Sun Princess was captured on CCTV footage at 10.40pm NZT yesterday, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.
Nobody saw the man fall.
A Princess Cruise spokeswoman said cruise staff were notified the man was missing by his family about 3am NZT.
Senior Constable Angela Corbett of the New South Wales Police said it was unlikely they would release the man's name.
"In general we need approval from family, but it is still under investigation so it has not got to that stage."
New South Wales police had only just taken over the case from the Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra, she said.
"Investigators do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances, and a report will be prepared for the information of the coroner."
The ship was about 320km east of Sydney and had been travelling from Auckland to Sydney after a 13-night New Zealand cruise when the passenger fell.
The Princess Cruise spokeswoman said the ship turned back this morning but there was no sign of the man.
AMSA ended the search for the passenger after expert medical advice suggested the man could not survive falling overboard.
The Sun Princess was now returning to Sydney and would arrive early tomorrow morning.
Passengers onboard had received regular updates regarding their delayed arrival in Sydney and were being assisted to make onward travel arrangements, the spokeswoman said.
AMSA sent a Dornier search and rescue aircraft to the search area.
"There have been no sightings of the man during the search," AMSA said this afternoon.
"Expert medical advice received by AMSA indicated the man was very unlikely to have survived when he entered the water given the height.
The advice also indicated the man would not have been able to survive in the water...given his age, clothing and weather conditions at the time of the incident," AMSA said.
"Sea conditions in the area were rough with swells up to three metres.
"In consultation with the Master of the Sun Princess, the operating company and the next of kin, the search effort has concluded."
Kendall Carver, International Cruise Victims (ICV) chairman, said a "man overboard" system would save lives.
"When somebody does go overboard a cruise ship, it could be hours or days" before anyone knew, Mr Carver said.
Mr Carver said man overboard systems could include lasers that automatically detected any falling human body and immediately alerted crew.
Cunard ship Queen Victoria was reportedly testing a man overboard system earlier this year.
Two hundred and thirty-nine people were lost overboard cruise ships internationally since 2000, the cruisejunkie.com website said.
The website said 16 of those cases were from Princess ships.
This year, 19 people were lost overboard - two of them from Princess ships, the website stated.
Mr Carver claimed the cruise ship industry had ignored pleas to increase the height of railings on ships.
The US Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Law was passed in 2010 in response to campaigning from ICV.
It said ship rails should be 42 inches (106.7cm) above the cabin deck. ICV wanted a minimum height of 137.2cm.
The law said ships should also integrate technology used for capturing images of passengers or detecting passengers who have fallen overboard, to the extent such technology was available.
- By Rebecca Quilliam, Nikki Papatsoumas and John Weekes of NZME
