One of New Zealand's navy ships struck a reef and sank after it was left on autopilot, an official inquiry has found.
The HMNZS Manawanui went down on October 5 while it was conducting surveys off the island of Upolu, and then it started leaking oil into the ocean, which divers are currently monitoring. All 75 people onboard were evacuated safely.
When crew members were unable to change the ship's direction, they believed it was because there were issues with the vessel's thruster, but it had actually been left on autopilot, the interim Court of Inquiry report, which was released on Friday, shows.
"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," Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding said, according to the report. "The crew did not realize Manawanui remained in autopilot and, as a consequence, mistakenly believed its failure to respond to direction changes was the result of a thruster control failure."
He continued: "Having mistakenly assessed a thruster control failure, standard procedures should have prompted the ship's crew to check that the ship was under manual control rather than in autopilot. This check did not occur. Remaining in autopilot resulted in the ship maintaining a course toward land, until grounding and eventually stranding."
Why this ended up happening, and "what would come next in terms of lessons learned," will be determined in the first quarter of next year, the report said.
A separate disciplinary process will need to be carried out once the Court of Inquiry has reached its full conclusions.
The HMNZS Manawanui, one of New Zealand's nine navy ships, is the first ship the country has lost since World War II.
It was around a mile from the shore when it struck a reef and began taking in water and it took five hours for the first survivors to reach land.
Golding said: "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.
"We have incredible people within our Defence Force who answer the call to serve every day. Much of their work is risky and involves decisions that can mean life or death. No one turns up to work to have a bad day.
"In this situation, we thankfully did not lose any lives but lives have been affected nonetheless, and we continue to support and work closely with those who were onboard Manawanui on that day."
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