The Pacific Jewel turned its engines around and returned to Sydney yesterday after a missing woman was declared lost at sea near New Caledonia.

As e-Travel Blackboard reported earlier this week the liner underwent a ship-wide search while New Caledonia authorities searched by air for the woman who was reported missing by family on board on Sunday night.

However days later, the woman is still yet to be found according to a Pacific Jewel Facebook post, and the ship with its 2,000 people on board were forced to make the journey back to Sydney.

According to the post, the woman is yet to be found but authorities “are not treating her death as suspicious”.

“Can we please ask people not to speculate/presume what happened to the lady on Jewel, be aware that maybe her family could be reading these pages, please show respect and privacy in this matter,” the Facebook post read.