A Royal New Zealand Navy vessel ran aground and sank off Samoa, but all 75 crew and passengers on board were safe, the New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement yesterday.
HMNZS Manawanui, the navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu on Saturday night while conducting a reef survey, said Commodore Shane Arndell, the maritime component commander of the New Zealand Defence Force.
Several vessels responded and assisted in rescuing the crew and passengers who had left the ship in lifeboats, Arndell said in a statement.
Photo: New Zealand Defence Force via AFP
A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon was also deployed to assist in the rescue.
The cause of the grounding is unknown and would need further investigation, the New Zealand Defence Force said.
Video and photographs published on local media showed the Manawanui, which cost NZ$103 million (US$63.45 million at the current exchange rate) in 2018, listing heavily and with plumes of thick gray smoke rising after it ran aground.
The vessel later capsized and was below the surface by 9am yesterday, the New Zealand Defence Force said.
The agency said it was “working with authorities to understand the implications and minimize the environmental impacts.”
Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told a news conference in Auckland that a plane would leave for Samoa to bring the rescued crew and passengers back to New Zealand.
Some of those rescued had sustained minor injuries, including from walking across a reef, he said.
New Zealand Minister of Defence Judith Collins described the grounding as “really challenging for everybody on board.”
“I know that what has happened is going to take quite a bit of time to process,” Collins told the news 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.
Rescue operations were coordinated by Samoa Fire and Emergency Services Authority and Australian Defence Force personnel with the assistance of the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre, a statement from Samoa Police, Prison and Corrections Service posted on Facebook.
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