06 JAN 2017: All Leisure Group, owner of Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery has announced that it has ceased trading, after selling off many of its brands, leaving 400 passengers currently overseas. All affected passengers will be returned home by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) without charge.

13,000 passengers have been booked on future cruises.

The ATOL (Air Travel Organisers Licence) at the CAA scheme exists for this kind of situation and ATOL protected customers will be able to claim full refunds as soon as possible.

Grim discovery

German passengers Ernst Bechstein and his wife were on a Tirrenia ferry from Porto Torres in Sardinia back to Genoa on the Italian mainland when they both fell asleep on outside sun loungers. When Bechstein woke up his wife was no longer beside him and authorities on the ship conducted an unsuccessful search for her.

Two months after going missing, Imelda Bechstein’s body was found in a ship ventilation shaft and an autopsy found that she died a day after going missing. It is suspected that she suffered injuries from the fall down the shaft.