An inquiry by the government on Friday found that a Royal New Zealand Navy ship which ran aground off the coasts of Samoa and sank last year, was doomed to failure due to several mistakes, including inadequate crew training and poor leadership.

The final report of the court inquiry found that the crew failed to identify the risks associated with the survey task performed by the ship, and that supervision was inadequate.

The report stated that "the direct cause of the grounding was determined to be a series human errors."

In October, the Manawanui, an expert dive and hydrographic ship, grounded on a coral reef in southern Samoa while conducting survey activities. All 75 members of the crew survived.

In an interim report published in November, the crew didn't realise that the ship was still on autopilot. They therefore believed its failure to respond when given control inputs resulted from a thruster malfunction. The final report confirmed these findings.

Garin Golding, the New Zealand Navy chief, said that the report "highlighted an apparent gap between the work imagined and the work actually done". A series of factors compounded the cause.

Golding stated that the navy has already started implementing some of the recommendations from the report while others will take longer.

Judith Collins, the Minister of Defence, told reporters the government will release the country's capability plans "very soon", but she did not specify a date.

In 2023, the country's National Security Strategy stated that more money was needed for its military due to its ageing equipment and lack of manpower. The defence capability plan is expected to include plans to increase defence spending, which currently represents less than 1% of GDP.

(source: Reuters)