Mistakes by members of the crew caused New Zealand navy ship HMNZS Manawanui to plow into a reef off the coast of Samoa where it caught fire and sank.
Preliminary findings from a military Court of Inquiry revealed that the crew failed to realize the autopilot was engaged, mistakenly thinking another issue had occurred with the ship. They also did not check whether the ship was under manual control as it continued toward the land.
Furthermore, 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 as reported. At the time, the cause of the sinking was unclear to Officials and Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding ordered a Court of Inquiry to investigate.
“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 28 November. Golding concluded by saying that “Muscle memory from the person in control should have leaned over to that panel and checked whether the screen said autopilot or not.”
The court of inquiry is expected to continue until the first quarter of next year. Golding mentioned that given human error was identified as the cause, a separate disciplinary process will begin after the inquiry.
