WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – A fuel spill is “very likely" after a New Zealand navy ship ran aground, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa, the Pacific island nation’s acting prime minister said late Sunday.
All 75 people on board HMNZS Manawanui were brought to safety in lifeboats. The ship was one of only nine in the Royal New Zealand Navy and was the first ship the country lost at sea after World War II.
Acting Prime Minister of Tuala Tebaga Iosefo Ponifacio said in a statement that Samoan authorities were assessing the environmental impact in the area where the ship sank on Sunday morning.
New Zealand Navy chief Rear Admiral Garin Golding told reporters the ship’s passengers, including civilian scientists and foreign military personnel, were evacuated in “difficult conditions” and in the dark. The ship ran aground on a reef about a mile from shore and began to take on water, and it took five hours for the first survivors to reach land.
Samoan authorities said several passengers were treated for minor injuries after walking across the reef to safety.
New Zealand plans to hold a tribunal of inquiry into the ship’s sinking. The cause of the accident is unknown, but Defense Minister Judith Collins told 1News on Monday that she had heard a loss of power to the vessel led to the grounding.
Mr Collins said the diving and hydrographic surveying vessel had been in service with New Zealand since 2019, but was 20 years old and previously belonged to Norway. The ship ran aground on a coral reef while surveying a coral reef off the coast of Upolu Island, Samoa’s most populous island.
Photos and videos taken from the shore showed the ship listing and disappearing completely beneath the waves, with large plumes of smoke billowing from where it sank. Collins said Sunday that he did not expect the ship to be salvaged.
“This ship is unfortunately almost gone," she told reporters.
Mr Collins told Radio New Zealand on Monday that the ship had a “significant amount of fuel” on board and efforts were underway to assess the potential environmental impact. If there was a spill, New Zealand “obviously would have to come forward”, she added.
The state of New Zealand’s aging military equipment has prompted a warning from the Pentagon, which said in a March report that the navy is “extremely vulnerable” and has problems maintaining and retaining the personnel needed to maintain it. The ship is said to be in a dormant state.
Mr Golding said HMNZS Manawanui underwent routine maintenance prior to deployment. The captain of the ship was an experienced commander who had served on the ship for two years.
