Moment when Royal New Zealand Navy ship catches fire and sinks after running aground on a coral reef while crew members are shipwrecked in Samoa

This is the moment a Royal New Zealand Navy ship catches fire and sinks after running aground on the coral reef off the coast of Samoa, leaving crew members on board shipwrecked.

The New Zealand Defense Force said on Sunday that the HMNZS Manawanui, the New Zealand Navy’s specialist diving and hydrographic ship, ran aground near the southern coast of Samoa’s main island of Upolu on Saturday evening.

The 75 crew and passengers on board had been conducting a tropical reef survey on the island before the ship caught fire and sank at 9am on Sunday morning.

Samoa Fire Commissioner Tanuvasa Petone said the ship burst into flames before going down following a successful rescue mission – with everyone on board reported safely on shore, NZ Radio stated.

Three of the 75 required hospital treatment, he added.

The New Zealand HMNZS Manawanui capsized off the coast of Samoa on Saturday evening with 75 crew and passengers on board

Images captured the ship going up in smoke

Several ships responded and helped rescue the crew and passengers who had abandoned ship in lifeboats

The Manawanui has carried out a range of specialist diving, salvage and research tasks in New Zealand and the South West Pacific

‘They’re all on land. “They are safe and sound, apart from just a few individuals who…have some minor injuries, and so we treated them at the scene and took them to hospital.”

Rescue operations were coordinated by Samoan emergency services and Australian defense personnel with the assistance of the New Zealand Rescue Centre, according to a statement from the Samoa Police, Prison and Corrections Service on Facebook.

Several ships responded and helped rescue the crew and passengers who had abandoned ship in lifeboats, Commodore Shane Arndell, the New Zealand Defense Force’s maritime component commander, said in a statement.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon was also deployed to assist in the rescue.

Video and photos published on local media showed the Manawanui, which cost the New Zealand government about £48 million in 2018, rolling heavily and sending up plumes of gray smoke after it grounded walked.

The cause of the grounding remains unknown and requires further investigation, Defense said after the incident.

Samoan authorities had issued a maritime warning for the island’s southern coast this weekend.

Around the time of the incident, winds of up to 40 km/h and ocean swells of up to 4 meters were forecast.

The New Zealand military said rescuers had had to deal with currents and winds pushing life rafts and sea boats towards the reefs and that “the swell made the rescue attempt particularly challenging.”

Rescue operations were coordinated by Samoan emergency services and Australian defense personnel with the assistance of the New Zealand Rescue Center

All 75 were reported safely ashore Sunday morning; three were sent to hospital for treatment of minor injuries

A plane will leave for Samoa on Sunday to return the rescued crew and passengers to New Zealand

The cause of the grounding remains unknown and requires further investigation, Defense said after the incident

The crew and passengers escaped the sinking ship in lifeboats

It added that it was “working with authorities to understand the implications and minimize environmental impacts.”

Defense Secretary Judith Collins described the grounding as a “real challenge for everyone on board.”

“I know what happened will take quite some time to process,” Collins said at the news conference.

“I look forward to determining the cause so we can learn from it and prevent a recurrence,” she said, adding that an immediate focus was on saving “what’s left” of the ship.

Chief of Navy Admiral Garin Golding told a news conference in Auckland that a plane would depart for Samoa on Sunday to return the rescued crew and passengers to New Zealand.

He said some of the rescued people had suffered minor injuries, including from walking on a reef.

The Manawanui has carried out a range of specialist diving, salvage and research tasks in New Zealand and the South West Pacific.

It was also used for salvage at sea and had a 100 ton sea crane.

The New Zealand Navy is already operating at reduced capacity and three of its nine ships are idled due to staff shortages.