Police say decision based on expert medical advice that the man could not have survived, taking into account water temperature and weather conditions

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The search for a man who went overboard from the Spirit of Tasmania I in Bass Strait has been suspended.

Victoria police will prepare a report for the coroner.

A large-scale search was launched after passengers on the ferry saw the 45-year-old man falling into the water southeast of Port Phillip Head at 11.40pm on Friday.

Police said in a statement the decision to suspend the search was based on expert medical advice that the man could not have survived past midday, taking into account various factors including water temperature and weather conditions.

The two Spirit of Tasmania ferries would resume their schedules.

Earlier, Sergeant Paul Bartlett from Victoria’s water police had said the ability to survive in the conditions “would be very limited”.

“Hypothermia would limit their capability of survival,” he told reporters on Saturday.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) had co-ordinated the search with the assistance of Victoria police, including four helicopters and AMSA’s search and rescue plane.

Meanwhile, a cruise ship from which passengers were hurt in a fatal bus crash in Vanuatu has returned to Brisbane.



Australian tourists seriously injured in fatal bus crash in Vanuatu Read more

P&O’s Pacific Dawn made port just before dawn, bringing to an end an eventful cruise for the wrong reasons for some voyagers.



Ten Australians were injured when a tour bus was involved in a head-on collision with a commuter bus on Monday. Three locals died.



The last of the injured Australian passengers – an 11-year-old boy with serious head injuries and his mother and brother – returned to the Gold Coast on Friday.



Seven others, including a four-year-old girl, were flown back to Queensland on Tuesday and Wednesday, and are recovering in Brisbane hospitals.



Most have femur and hip fractures.



The worst injured, a 76-year-old woman, is in the intensive care unit of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital.



The driver of the tourist bus has been charged with dangerous driving causing death, according to Vanuatu’s Daily Post.