The Fair Princess left on cruise 21 on August 28, with 1,126 passengers,bound for Noumea and Vila. On September 6, four passengers became seriously ill with flu-like symptoms and were disembarked at Noumea, and the ship resumed its journey. Mr Richardson said one of the people disembarked at Noumea had a heart condition unrelated to influenza and was medically evacuated to Sydney. The drugs were taken on board purely as a precautionary measure to deal with any further outbreaks of respiratory infection. The ship's return to Sydney was postponed a day because of the diversion.
Tests are under way to determine if the cause of the pneumonia is legionella.
After the captain's address, the Fair Princess picked up five NSW Health Department officials at Port Stephens who tested 150 healthy and 150 sick passengers.