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. The crew did not realize that the ship was still on autopilot and assumed that its failure to respond to changes of direction was due to a thruster control malfunction.
All 75 crew and passengers were evacuated 30 minutes after the initial grounding, and before the ship suffered a series of 'catastrophic' fires and sank the next morning, it said, likely preventing serious injuries or death.
To provide some immediate assurance, we have conducted a series of audits in the Fleet and looked to implement initial lessons identified from the interim report around training, risk management, and improving relevant orders, instructions, and procedures.
I want to reassure the public of New Zealand that we will learn from this situation and that it is on me, as the Chief of Navy, to ensure such a tragedy doesn't happen again.
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