The crew and Commanding Officer of the HMNZS Manawanui Navy ship were undertrained and the boat was not up to the task it was doing, a report into last year's grounding says.
Multiple failures of the crew, the ship, and the Navy itself have been identified in a damning final Court of Inquiry report into the incident off the coast of Samoa in October.
The report also contains a full transcript of the dramatic night. Including the captain telling the crew they would survive if they abandoned ship.
"This is the Captain. This isn't a great situation. however I have faith that you all know what you need to do. We'll get to our liferaft stations, we'll get in our liferafts and we'll survive this and then we'll wait for help to arrive.
"Make sure that you can do what you can to prepare yourself for getting in that liferaft if that means getting extra clothes then do that. All personnel are to try to get to the loo before they get in the liferaft."
UAS footage of RNZN Divers surveying the area around HMNZS Manawanui on the Southern Coast of Upulo as part of Op Resolution. 25 October 2024 Photo: New Zealand Defence Force
One witness had been heard telling a colleague "I'm trying to save the ship" and "it's not stopping", while another calls for calm. Crew are urged to get hands on emergency stations before a mayday call is made and eventually, crew are ordered to prepare to abandon ship and head to liferafts.
Here's how the grounding played out:
Minister of Defence Judith Collins, KC, Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Garin Golding, and President of the Court of Inquiry, Commodore Melissa Ross held a media conference in Auckland on Friday about the findings.
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