Three inter-island Taio Shipping Limited vessels have been detained by the Ministry of Transport in the Cook Islands, after a young boy from Auckland disappeared from a vessel last month.
The seven-year old boy was lost when on board the MV Lady Moana, travelling from Rakahanga to Rarotonga.
The Lady Moana, together with sister ships Grinna II and Maungaroa II have been suspended by Ministry of Transport investigators in Rarotonga’s Avatiu harbour.
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Josiah Taio, the Taio Shipping director, confirmed the investigation saying that “it’s a random survey and we can’t ignore the survey report. We are complying with everything”.
Moreover, he added that the detention had to do with some deficiencies detected by ministry surveyors, stating that “it’s normal for ships to have deficiencies. Things always break down. It’s part of the shipping industry, but we are working on those issues and trying to get them repaired soon so that we can resume our normal service.”
Mr Taio expressed that those items need to be repaired before the services resume. In fact, it was reported that repair works on Grinna II and Maungaroa II were almost complete, and works on Lady Moana would shortly begin once the other two ships have fully complied with the ministry requirements.
Overall, a missing person is always a challenging condition to deal with; Recently, a 37-year-old man fell from the cruise ship on July 4, when the vessel was sailing about 30 miles northwest of Cuba, heading back to Miami from Cozumel. Although the USCG members searched for 45 hours, they weren’t able to detect the crewmember and suspended the search.