Australian emergency crews have on Friday (May 10) suspended the search for two people who fell overboard from a Carnival cruise liner off the New South Wales coast. The couple remains missing.

Police said surveillance camera footage from the ship showed the 30-year-old man and 27-year-old woman, both Australian, fall from the mid-deck around 8:50 p.m. AEST (1150 GMT) on Wednesday (May 08).

The pair were reported missing when the Carnival Spirit docked in Sydney on Thursday (May 09) after completing a South Pacific tour, the ship has now left Sydney.

Search and rescue planes and boats were scouring an area covering about 500 square nautical miles off Australia's eastern coastline.

Hutchings said the couple had gone off the ship "one after the other", but it was unclear whether they had jumped or fallen by accident.

Miami-based Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, has been plagued by a series of high-profile problems in recent months.

In February, its Carnival Triumph cruise ship was adrift for five days in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine fire, stranding more than 3,000 passengers without electricity and adequate sanitation.

It is also coping with repercussions from the sinking of its Costa Concordia ship in Italy in January 2012, which claimed 32 lives.

Presented by Adam Justice