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Cruise ship passenger lost overboard off Sydney

SYDNEY >> An air and sea search for an 84-year-old passenger lost overboard from a cruise ship east of Sydney was called off Tuesday after authorities calculated that he could not have survived.

A security camera showed the man had dropped 82 feet into the ocean from the Sun Princess on Monday evening about 175 miles east of Sydney, search manager Australian Maritime Safety Authority, or AMSA, said in a statement.

AMSA said a search by the cruise ship and a Dornier search and rescue aircraft ended without finding any trace of the passenger.

The Sun Princess had been due to reach Sydney Tuesday morning to end a 13-day cruise to New Zealand.

But due to the search, the ship would now arrive around 24 hours later on Wednesday morning, operator Princess Cruises said in a statement.

AMSA had medical advice that the passenger was unlikely to have survived the fall and could not have survived for long in the ocean, because of heavy swells at 7 to 10 feet and winds blowing at 29 mph.

The Sun Princess offers cruises along the Australian coast and South Pacific.

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