Crew mistakes caused the sinking of a New Zealand navy ship off Samoan coast, inquiry finds

New Zealand Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding, left, and Defense Minister Judith Collins hold a press conference in Auckland, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Lawrence Smith/Stuff via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -

Mistakes by members of the crew caused a New Zealand navy ship to plow into a reef off the coast of Samoa, where it caught fire and sank, according to the preliminary findings of a military Court of Inquiry released Friday.

The ship’s crew did not realize autopilot was engaged, believed something else had gone wrong with the ship, and did not check the HMNZS Manawanui was under manual control as it maintained course toward land, a summary of the inquiry’s first report said. The full report has not been made public.

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All 75 people on board the vessel evacuated safely as the boat foundered about 1.6 kilometres (a mile) off the coast of Upolu, Samoa, in October. The ship was one of only nine in New Zealand’s navy and was the first the country lost at sea since World War II.

Officials did not know the cause of the sinking at the time, and Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding ordered a Court of Inquiry to investigate.

“The direct cause of the grounding has been determined as a series of human errors which meant the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been,” Golding told reporters in Auckland on Friday. “Muscle memory from the person in control should have leaned over to that panel and checked whether the screen said autopilot or not."

The crew "mistakenly believed its failure to respond to direction changes was the result of a thruster control failure,” he said. A number of contributing factors were identified, Golding said, including training, planning, supervision, readiness and risk assessment.

The Court of Inquiry is expected to continue until the first quarter of next year. Golding said given human error was identified as the cause, a separate disciplinary process will begin after the inquiry.

Three crew members who were on the bridge as the disaster unfolded are likely to face such a process, Golding added. They were the officer in control of the ship, an officer supervising that person, and the ship's commanding officer. The navy chief would not name them.

“I want to reassure the public of New Zealand that we will learn from this situation and that it is on me, as the Chief of Navy, to earn back your trust," Golding said.

In the days after the sinking, New Zealand's Defense Minister gave stinging rebukes of “misogynistic” online commenters who directed abusive comments at the ship's captain because she was a woman.

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The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel had been in service for New Zealand since 2019 and was surveying the reef that it ran aground on.

The sinking prompted fears in villages along the Samoan coastline near the wreck about damage caused by the ship's diesel spilling into the ocean. New Zealand officials have said since the sinking that most of the fuel burned off in the fire and that no environmental damage has been recorded.

The current flow of fuel into the sea was a “persistent slow leak” which divers are monitoring, Golding said Friday. Specialist equipment is due to be transported from New Zealand to Samoa by sea, departing this week, to remove fuel and other potential pollutants from the ship.

New Zealand officials have not made public plans to remove the ship from the reef.

“This has had an impact to our reputation,” Golding said. “We will own it, fix it and learn from it."