A lack of training, qualifications and experience among the crew on board a New Zealand navy ship that ran aground, caught fire, and sank off the coast of Samoa has been identified by a military Court of Inquiry in a final report released on Friday as contributing to the disaster.
The deficiencies were among a dozen failings of the crew, ship and New Zealand’s Navy that contributed to the loss of the HMNZS Manawanui in October 2024, according the 120-page report. An interim report last November had already revealed that the ship’s crew didn’t realize the vessel was on autopilot and mistakenly believed something else had gone wrong as it headed toward a reef.
All 75 people on board evacuated to safety as the ship foundered about 1.6 kilometers (one mile) off the coast of Upolu, Samoa’s second-largest island. 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 immediately know the cause of the sinking, prompting the Court of Inquiry to be ordered. Insufficient training, lack of qualified personnel on board, and inadequate risk management were among a raft of problems uncovered in its findings released Friday.
The report also highlighted the so-called hollowness of New Zealand’s navy, which, according to the authors, prompted the organization to “take risks” to meet demands “with a lean and inexperienced workforce,” its authors wrote.
Although the Court of Inquiry could not make findings of guilt, it recommended a separate disciplinary investigation for individual crew members, whose names were not named disclosed in the report. Their suggested offenses were redacted.
The report included a dramatic transcript of what unfolded on the bridge, with one crew member saying to another that the ship was “not really doing what I want it to do” as they tried to change the vessel’s course.
