A Royal New Zealand Navy ship, HMNZS Manawanui, has gone aground and later sunk off Samoa while doing a tropical reef survey but all 75 crew and passengers on board are reported safe ashore.
The New Zealand Defence Force said on Sunday the Manawanui, the NZ navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Samoa’s main island of Upolu on Saturday night as its crew were making the survey at the island nation.
Samoa fire commissioner Tanuvasa Petone said the ship caught fire and sank on Sunday morning after a successful rescue, NZ Radio reported. Three on board needed hospital treatment, he said.
“They’re all on land. They are safe and sound apart from just a few individuals that… have some minor injuries, and so we treated them at the site and transferred to them to the hospital.”
The cause of the grounding was unknown and would need further investigation, the Defence Force said. The vessel later capsized and was below the surface by 9am local time on Sunday, New Zealand Defence Force said.
It was “working with authorities to understand the implications and minimise the environmental impacts”.
Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told a press conference in Auckland that a plane would leave for Samoa on Sunday to bring the rescued crew and passengers back to New Zealand.
He said some of those rescued had suffered minor injuries, including from walking across a reef.
Defence Minister Judith Collins described the grounding as a “really challenging for everybody on board.”
“I know that what has happened is going to take quite a bit of time to process,” Ms Collins told the press conference.
“I look forward to pinpointing the cause so that we can learn from it and avoid a repeat,” she said, adding that an immediate focus was to salvage “what is left” of the vessel.
Video and photos published on local media showed the Manawanui, which cost the New Zealand government $NZ103 million (about £48m) in 2018, listing heavily and with plumes of thick grey smoke rising.
The vessel later sank, the New Zealand Herald reported on Sunday, citing a New Zealander on the shore. The Defence Force did not immediately confirm the report.
Rescue operations were coordinated by Samoan emergency services and Australian Defence Force personnel with the assistance of the New Zealand rescue centre, according to a statement from Samoa Police, Prison and Corrections Service posted on Facebook.
The Manawanui has conducted a range of specialist diving, salvage and survey tasks around New Zealand and across the South West Pacific.
New Zealand’s Navy is already working at reduced capacity with three of its nine ships idle due to personnel shortage.
The King is due to visit Samoa later this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which starts on Oct 21.
Source Agencies
