Manawanui Grounding Attributed to Series of Human Errors

Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui ran aground with 75 people on board in Samoa whilst conducting a hydrographic survey of a reef on October 5, 2024, and the final Court of Inquiry report has now been released.

An interim Court of Inquiry, released less than two months following the incident, found the direct causes and some contributing factors of the grounding and sinking related to a series of human errors.

In the final Court of Inquiry report, the Court found 12 factors that contributed to the grounding and sinking, making it more likely to occur.

In presenting the findings, Court of Inquiry president Commodore Melissa Ross, said the factors were: training and experience, military hydrographic planning, orders, instructions and procedures, operational risk matrix, force generation, operational release, supervision, violations, haste, leadership, distraction/interruption and hollowness.

“The Court found deficiencies in the training and qualifications of key ship’s personnel involved in the incident, risks related to the survey task were not sufficiently identified, discussed and mitigated, and instructions or procedures were lacking.”

The Court also found leadership was inadequate in some areas, supervision was not at expected levels and time pressure influenced the way the survey task