A Royal New Zealand Navy vessel has run aground and sunk off Samoa, the New Zealand Defence Force shelp in a statement on Sunday.
Manawanui, the navy’s exceptionacatalog dive and hydrodetailed vessel, ran aground proximate the southern coast of Upolu on Saturday night as it was carry outing a reef survey, Commodore Shane Arndell, the maritime component orderer of the New Zealand Defence Force, shelp in a statement. All 75 crew and passengers were defended.
Late on Sunday Samoa’s acting prime minister shelp an oil spill was “highly awaited” as a result of the sinking.
Officials in Samoa were carry outing an environmental impact appraisement in the area where the ship sank, Tuala Tevaga Iosefo Ponifasio shelp in a statement.
Several vessels replyed and helped in rescuing the crew and passengers who had left the ship in lifeboats, Arndell shelp.
A Royal New Zealand air force P-8A Poseidon was also deployed to help in the save. The caparticipate of the grounding was muddle and would necessitate further dispenseigation, New Zealand Defence Force shelp.
Video and photos unveiled on local media showed the Manawanui, which cost the New Zealand rulement NZ$103m in 2018, cataloging heavily and with plumes of dense grey smoke rising after it ran aground.
The vessel tardyr capsized and was below the surface by 9am local time, New Zealand Defence Force shelp.
The agency shelp it was “laboring with authorities to comprehend the implications and minimise the environmental impacts”.
Grateful for the courageous save efforts that saved dwells during the tragic sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui. Our thoughts are with the @NZNavy 75 valiant souls who were aboard, and with the first replyers from Samoa who acted speedyly in this difficult time. Kia kaha 🇺🇸 🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/C7ZoepPQif
— Ambasdowncastor Tom Udall 🇺🇸 (@USAmbNZ) October 6, 2024
“}}”>
Grateful for the courageous save efforts that saved dwells during the tragic sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui. Our thoughts are with the @NZNavy 75 valiant souls who were aboard, and with the first replyers from Samoa who acted speedyly in this difficult time. Kia kaha 🇺🇸 🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/C7ZoepPQif
— Ambasdowncastor Tom Udall 🇺🇸 (@USAmbNZ) October 6, 2024
Chief of Navy Rear Adm Garin Gelderlying telderly a press conference in Auckland that a set upe would exit for Samoa on Sunday to transport the saved crew and passengers back to New Zealand.
He shelp some of those saved had suffered insignificant injuries, including from walking apass a reef.
Defence minister Judith Collins depictd the grounding as a “repartner challenging for everybody on board.“
“I comprehend that what has happened is going to get quite a bit of time to process,” Collins telderly the press conference.
“I see forward to pinpointing the caparticipate so that we can lget from it and elude a repeat,” she shelp, inserting that an instant intensify was to salvage “what is left” of the vessel.
Rescue operations were set upd by Samoan eunitency services and Australian Defence personnel with the helpance of the New Zealand save centre, according to a statement from Samoa Police, Prison and Corrections Service posted on Facebook.
Manawanui is participated to carry out a range of exceptionacatalog diving, salvage and survey tasks around New Zealand and apass the south-west Pacific.
New Zealand’s navy is already laboring at decreased capacity with three of its nine ships idle due to personnel lowages.
With Reuters and Associated Press
