New Zealand’s Newest Artificial Reef- Crew Error
HMNZS Manawanui
Crew Mistakes Caused the Sinking of a New Zealand Navy Ship off Samoan Coast, Inquiry Finds
By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — 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.
All 75 people on board the vessel evacuated safely as the boat foundered about 1.6 kilometers (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.
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“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.
The local Samoans are understandably concerned about the environmental impact of the sunken vessel on their reef but NZ officials say there is no evidence of contamination, as most of the diesel fuel burned up in the ensuing fire. So there’s that. They are monitoring the situation.
Critical factors discovered by the Court of Inquiry include training, planning, supervision, readiness and risk assessment failures. When the ship CO’s qualifications were questioned, New Zealand’s defense minister Judith Collins disparaged the negative social media commentary as “vile and misogynistic.”
“The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship’s captain, a woman with 30 years’ naval experience who on the night made the call to get her people to safety,” Collins said. “We are all appointed on merit, not gender.”
The CO, Commander Yvonne Gray may very well have been the best qualified and skilled officer to take the helm, but the poison of DEI is always the question of a leader’s caliber over social engineering. Is she a product of a flawed officer selection process? Will the impending NZ military court of inquiry actually address root causes? Stay tuned.
Category: DEI, Government Incompetence
“Critical factors discovered by the Court of Inquiry include training, planning, supervision, readiness and risk assessment failures.”
But I’m sure the planning for the next on board pride event was completed before the accident.
Don’t forget the DEI training roster.
I used to always have to remind the exwife about the blinker. Same thing pretty much.
Aren’t all of those factors something the Commander (Captain) of the vessel has direct impact on?!!
Why did she not go down with her ship?
She pussied out.
Besides, she is retiring so she can focus on running NZ’s first all lesbian construction company.
They are known for their excellent tongue in groove fitting.
So they’re finish carpenters.
Was she a crack navigator?
Nothing has done more damage to the military than DEI.
Every time I see a female or a minority officer or senior NCO in a leadership position, I can’t help to wonder how he/she got there. Sadly, not every time it has been due to merit.
DEI has undermined the hard work of the minority people it was intended to help, just as every socialist/communist/collectivist initiative has done before.
But then, maybe I am a POS, perhaps I am the problem, and I shouldn’t be noticing those things.
I saw the first wave of DEI when I was on AD in the early 90’s and the Clinton Curse began, and it has only gotten worse over the years with every slacker that can do so using DEI to get past the more qualified and hardworking and yes, IMO DEI CREATES more racial and gender tension while solving nothing.
DEI sunk 25% of the New Zealand Navy…
DEI accomplished what the IJN couldn’t
1/9= 0.111
11% = 25%????
Now try removing logistics and lake/coastal ships.
Or solve that pie problem from the other day .
Thanks, now I want pie.
Mmmmm
Pumpkin pie w/ Graham cracker crust 🤤
How do you know that?
DEI hired and promoted will, eventually, end in catastrophe.
“The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship’s captain, a woman with 30 years’ naval experience…”
Odd, in the American Navy, the captain of a vessel is responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen on it. And the captain is in command, thus directs the actions of the crew, so in this case shit rolls uphill. The ugly queer chick is to blame.
I am sure All-Points Logistics had a contract in there somewhere…
What about the software used in the navigation system? From a proud but humble woman owned business?
Apparently not.
To paraphrase the late great Tom Petty, sometimes your best just ain’t good enough.
So, not knowing a thing about naval architecture, I have to ask why the autopilot wouldn’t have simply shut off if someone said “iceberg (I mean Samoa) right ahead!” and either turned the helm or maybe directed the engines hard astern?
I’m no nautical expert, but to my untrained way of thinking… if a vessel is not responding to the helm, wouldn’t the autopilot be the first thing to check?
If only there were emergency procedures to follow in the event of a ship’s loss of helm control that crews could learn through study and practice. There could be graded evaluations to establish crew performance. It would be folded into “training, planning, supervision, readiness and risk assessment” Commanding Officers need to ensure the vessels readiness for sea. Failure to identify training shortfalls invites disaster.
Like this.
Something like an emergency procedures checklist could be a good idea… you know, something like “If this occurs… then you do this…”
Might be overly simplistic. What do I know, I’m just the son of a B-52 crewman that had a procedure for anything and everything.
Emergencies? They don’t got no steenkin’ Emergencies! Not in the tropical paradise of Samoa! Don’t you read the travel brochures?
Easy button not installed. It would have put the boat over budget.
Must not be like cruise control where you just tap the brakes or throw in the clutch.
How can you bother the captain with driving a ship when you’re getting ready for dinner. Priorities…make up first.
“Wymmin drivers!” Amiright? Just kidding all of you Adorable Deplorables. Danica Patrick was unavailable for comment.
I’m not a sailor but I was led to believe that the whole idea was to have the water on the outside of the vessel. I reckon that Ms Captain Thang can kiss off making Flag Rank, huh? Highly qualified or not, even Small Country Big Navy frowns on putting your ship on a reef. Our own (BEAT) Navy will slam into a reef of their own Saturday Week when they slam into the defensive line that the (GO) Army Black Knights will put up. (Dodges a thrown flight helmet and beats feet…laffing like hell)
Has anyone checked to see if Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine and Shelly Winters are trapped in the wreckage?
Just ask the E_4 mafia on board whos’ fault it is……… they know, they always know.
Don’t be Petty….
“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.”
30 years naval experience and can’t tell when the autopilot is on.
And why does a ship need an autopilot?
Oh, I see. Those were the Three Stooges.
Possibly one year’s experience 30 times? I knew plenty of officers like that.
They were probably performing a HAKA and filming it to show their DEI compliance.
President Jacinda Arden, courts, etc are all women. DEI based NZ Navy promoted based on their anti-misogynistic idealolgy of promoting women only. What happened to the people who navigated those waters and never hit any reefs, oh they were men. They would never say they promoted because she was a woman, because it’s only woman running the show in NZ. Expected results and findings…not DEI.
Honestly, given that New Zealand has such a piddly small military, they can afford to do all that nonsense and there will be next to no repercussions. They haven’t been players on the world stage since WW2 anyway.
NZ needs to get their military in order and quit using it for social experiments. They are of little use to anyone, except for having a port that could be used.
They stopped letting anything we had that was nuclear powered into their ports decades ago. And shortly after that episode, the “five eyes” intel program became the “four eyes” program, when New Zealand got dropped permanently from all intel distribution.
Oh, I know quite a few people with 30 years experience in their field who are bad at their jobs.
In commenting upon the record of the court of inquiry, the Chief of the Bureau of Engineering said: “The Bureau desires to emphasize the fact that such devices as radio compasses, sonic depth finders, etc., are reliable only to the extent that they are operated properly, and recommends that the attention of the forces afloat be directed to the necessity for continuous training in their use.” With this remark the Bureau of Navigation concurred.
Take a guess when the above was written. Nope, it wasn’t in relation to this incident. It was written in 1931 and had to do with the Honda Point Disaster in 1923.
Devices.
Operated properly.
Continuous training in their use.
It’s not that hard of a concept.
The full memo.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/h/honda-pedernales-point-california-disaster-8-september-1923/memorandum-concerning-the-honda-disaster.html
Info on the incident itself.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2020/october/disaster-honda-point