An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) preliminary report has been released that outlines the order of events leading up to the grounding of the cruise ship Coral Adventurer near a remote port
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) preliminary report has been released that outlines the order of events leading up to the grounding of the cruise ship Coral Adventurer near a remote port on the north-east coast of Papua New Guinea in December.
The ATSB launched a transport safety investigation after the 93-metre Australian-flagged ship grounded on the morning of 27 December 2025, with 80 passengers and 44 crew on board.
The cruise, which had left Cairns 10 days earlier, had visited several sites in Papua New Guinea, with passages between them generally conducted overnight. On the morning of the accident, the ship was towards the end of one such overnight passage, from Lababia to Dregerhafen.
The planned route to enter Dregerhafen involved first turning to port, so the ship could pass south of Nussing Island, and then turning to starboard, to continue towards the harbor entrance.
During the night, the chief mate had made a small change to this route in the ship’s ECDIS, intending to smooth out the second turn.
At about 0512, as the ship approached Dregerhafen, the chief mate attempted to select this modified route in the ECDIS, but found it would not load until a ‘route
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