Andrew McDouall was a passenger on the Interislander ferry Kaitaki when it broke down off Wellington's south coast. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Andrew McDouall was a passenger on the Interislander ferry Kaitaki when it broke down off Wellington's south coast. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Dire Strait is an investigative series on how our inter-island ferries came to be in such a state of disrepair - and how the situation can be fixed.
A passenger on board the Kaitaki ferry when it lost power and drifted towards Wellington’s south coast is concerned about how longa resulting investigation is expected to take, saying it’s “beyond belief”.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has opened an inquiry following the Interislander ferry’s mayday call on January 28.
Wellington resident Andrew McDouall was on board the ferry at the time along with 863 others.
“The experience was very nerve-racking and concerning and I don’t think there was an adult on board that wasn’t thinking about the Wahine disaster.”
He was pleased TAIC had launched an investigation into the potentially very serious situation but when he read an article in the Herald that it could take 18 months, he thought it was a misquote.
“I regard 18 months as “beyond belief” unless TAIC has fallen into some bureaucratic muddle as much of the public service.”
McDouall accepted there was a process to be undertaken, including reviews and right of reply, but questioned why this couldn’t be fast-tracked so more timely recommendations could be made to improve public safety.
“This is particularly time sensitive when the Interislander are in the process of building two new vessels and recommendations may be able to be incorporated into the design and operational plan of those vessels.”
Andrew McDouall was a passenger on the Interislander ferry Kaitaki when it broke down off Wellington's south coast. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Two new mega-ferries are being built in South Korea at a cost of $551m to replace Interislander’s ageing fleet.
The Aratere is currently the only purpose-built ship in the fleet and has a history of anything but smooth sailing. Incidents include losing a propeller, losing power on several occasions, and an unscheduled 360 degrees turn in the harbour.
“It is hard to be confident that the new ferries, when introduced, won’t have similar performance and reliability issues,” McDouall said.
“It is absolutely the expectation of the Crown, who is putting significant investment into these projects, that every box is ticked to ensure these vessels will be as reliable as possible. I have no concerns in that regard.”
This caused all the engines to automatically shut down to protect them from overheating.
iReX programme director David Warburton said the two new ships will have independent and redundant cooling systems and are designed with completely segregated engine rooms.
“A failure on the engine cooling outlet line in one of the engine rooms does not impact the engines in the other engine room.
“Power to the ship would be maintained via the unaffected engines throughout the incident and both propulsion pods will remain powered.”
The Interislander Cook Strait ferry Kaitaki docked at CentrePort in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In response to McDouall’s concerns about the length of TAIC’s investigation, the commission’s chief executive Martin Sawyers said urgent recommendations could be made during the inquiry if a pressing safety issue was identified.
“So that immediate action can be taken and it is not necessary to wait for the full inquiry process to be completed before that recommendation is made.”
Sawyers confirmed marine investigations took 18 months on average to complete and could often take considerably longer.
“That timeline incorporates the investigation and hearing process and the 18-month period is in accordance with the timeframes similar safety investigation agencies around the world take with their inquiries.”
TAIC conducted deep-dive safety investigations to understand the underlying causes of incidents and make recommendations to avoid the same thing happening again, Sawyers said.
Maritime New Zealand is also undertaking its own investigation into the incident as well as an audit of Interislander and its vessels.
Staff investigate such incidents under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the Maritime Transport Act 1994, a spokesperson said.
“Investigators, assisted by technical engineering staff, have been reviewing and fact-finding around what occurred.”
Investigations of this nature are complex, the spokesperson said. Decisions regarding any potential prosecution are generally made within 12 months of the incident.
On the other hand, the audit is expected to be completed by mid-2023 and will assess Interislander’s maintenance plan.
“The audit is about seeking confidence that the organisation and its vessels have effective quality and safety management systems to consistently meet the maintenance requirements of their ships,” the spokesperson said.
Transport Minister Michael Wood says KiwiRail needed to do a better job of managing reliability going forward. Photo / Mark Mitchell
KiwiRail is also undertaking an internal investigation into the incident.
Interislander operations general manager Duncan Roy said this was ongoing and there was no firm timeline for its conclusion.
“The investigation is part of our commitment to ongoing improvement in our organisation.”
The Kaitaki ferry was due to resume carrying passengers across the Cook Strait last week, but ongoing gearbox issues mean passenger sailings have been cancelled until March 25.
Roy said Interislander is continuing to work through the process to “diagnose and repair” the ferry.
“We do not have a definite timeline for that yet, but we do know that this is a less serious fault than experienced by Kaiarahi in 2021, so we are not expecting a prolonged period out of service.”
“Passenger bookings are heavy for Easter, and we are looking at all options for getting as many people across Cook Strait as possible should Kaitaki not be available.”
Wood has said KiwiRail needed to do a better job of managing reliability going forward.
“That is the expectation that the Government has put down to KiwiRail and that’s what they’re working on now.”
