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Police are considering hiring a fulltime search and rescue officer for the Wanganui area after a teenage fisherman died during a botched rescue.
Geoffrey Hampton died in his father Alan's arms 12 hours after freak waves sank their boat in the cold Tasman Sea in February. The Hamptons were celebrating Geoffrey's 19th birthday with boat owner and family friend Duncan Powell.
Worried relatives raised the alarm late on the Saturday night, but the men were not found until daybreak the following morning by boatie Lyndon Bowman.
At the time police were criticised for not calling nearby Ohakea Air Base for help and the search and rescue operation has been reviewed by a police maritime expert.
The findings have been suppressed until a Coroner's inquest into Geoffrey's death in September.
But central district commander Inspector David White confirmed police would advertise for a fulltime search and rescue co-ordinator as a result of the tragedy.
He would not comment on the review because of the suppression but said police would not necessarily wait until September to make changes.
"There is a possibility that out of this we may appoint a central search and rescue co-ordinator," said White. "We are not going to sit and wait until September for that to happen."
Speaking about the rescue for the first time, Powell said he was angry - but gagged by the Coroner's suppression order.
"I do believe there are certain members of certain organisations that hopefully will be held responsible.
"What happened to us that night could have happened to anybody. We can't change the situation. However, we can change the future.
"All I hope that will come out of this tragedy is that other boaties in the same situation, not just in this region but nationwide, have a better outcome than we did."
The father-of-three said Geoffrey, who worked in his dairy farm irrigation business, was "brilliant" and "always thinking about other people".
"He was one in a million."
Wanganui MP Chester Borrows has previously questioned why the Air Force was not asked to help and Ohakea crewmen were concerned an Iroquois helicopter equipped with night-vision and a winch sat idle during the rescue.
The Herald on Sunday can now reveal a second helicopter equipped with advanced rescue gear was also never called to help find Powell and the Hamptons.
Part of the Coroner's inquest will focus on why the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust - which is on permanent standby - was also not alerted to the operation.
Senior helicopter crewman Paul Patterson said it would have taken just 30 minutes to reach Wanganui from the trust's base in New Plymouth.
"But we only found out about the accident the next day when it hit the news. We looked at each other and said: 'Well, you've got to wonder why they didn't call us.' The police are well aware that we exist and I'm a little surprised we weren't called."
Patterson said the helicopter was designed for marine rescues and could carry a dive team, winch crew and paramedics. "We expected as a rescue operation to have been involved in something of that nature, particularly with the technology we have."
