ORION RESCUES FIJIAN FISHERS DRIFTING AWAY FROM KADAVU
THE THREE PEOPLE ABOARD APPEARED WELL AND WAVED AT THE CREW. ONE OF THEM, ON THE BOW, WAS SEEN ATTEMPTING TO PADDLE WITH A MAKESHIFT OAR With no other vessels in sight, the crew dropped a pack with a beacon and radio to the survivors and Fiji Police sent
Three Fijian fishers were part of a successful search and rescue mission thanks to Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion.
Since last Saturday, the aircraft was deployed to two missions in the Kiribati and a third in Fiji. While the second mission in Kiribati and the third in Fiji were successful, the initial was futile.
Mission in Fiji
On Tuesday evening, the Orion crew received its request to search for a vessel, a fishing boat reported overdue after departing Gau Island for Suva, on Saturday night.
On Wednesday morning they found the boat drifting in open water about 40 nautical miles to the southeast - and going away from - Kadavu Island.
The three people aboard appeared well and waved at the crew. One of them, on the bow, was seen attempting to paddle with a makeshift oar.
With no other vessels in sight, the crew dropped a pack with a beacon and radio to the survivors and Fiji Police sent a vessel to their location to take them to safety.
The mission in Fiji was possible when the Orion returned from the Kiribati mission.
It was to return to Auckland on Tuesday but bad weather forced an overnight stay in Fiji.
Earlier missions in Kiribati
The first of the three searches began on Saturday when the Orion was deployed to Kiribati to look for a sixmetre wooden fishing boat with three men aboard, which had been missing since last Wednesday
The New Zealand Defence Force had been asked by Maritime New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) on behalf of the Rescue Coordination Centre Fiji - which coordinates search and rescues in this region - to send the Orion.
On Saturday afternoon, the Orion crew received a second request to search for another boat with four people aboard, also reported missing from Kiribati.
The crew located the boat on Sunday, dropping a survival pack which included an activated locator beacon, water, chocolate, a strobe light, a torch and a note with information about how the four would be rescued.
Staff at the Kiribati maritime coordination centre sent a rescue vessel, Natinteraoi, which sailed directly to the locator beacon position and rescued
the four in the early hours of Monday morning.
Without the locator beacon dropped by the Orion, the rescue vessel would have been unlikely to be able to find the boat in the dark.
After finding the boat, the Orion crew resumed the search for the first fishing boat. However, despite extensive efforts over the weekend and on Monday, they were unable to locate the vessel.
Rescue operation
During search and rescue operations, RCCNZ provides RNZAF crews with search areas which are modelled from the last known movements of the vessels, currents and weather patterns. The crew formulates a plan based off the modelling, conducting both radar and visual searches over what can be
vast areas of ocean.
When a missing vessel is found, crews drop survival packs to those on board, establish radio communications with them, and provide locator beacons and coordinates so rescue vessels can pinpoint their location, rescue the survivors and take them to safety.
Air Component Commander Air Commodore Shaun Sexton said those involved in the searches felt for the friends and wh nau of the fishermen who had not been found.
“It’s been an incredible achievement by our crew, and search and rescue staff in New Zealand, Fiji, and Kiribati, to find two groups of survivors that were drifting in boats without power in vast areas of ocean far from land or any other vessels,” he said.