Missing schooner – update 13

The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) says no more active searching is currently planned for the American schooner Nina, which is missing en route from New Zealand to Australia.

The 21m (70ft) Nina, sailing from Opua in the Bay of Islands to Newcastle with seven people on board, has not been heard from since 4 June.

Over the past 11 days, RCCNZ has coordinated nine extensive searches for the vessel or its liferaft. An RNZAF P3 Orion has searched approximately 737,000 square nautical miles (an area more than eight times the size of New Zealand) without making any sighting. There were also shoreline searches by fixed wing aircraft and helicopters.

RCCNZ’s Operations Manager John Seward said the process for considering a formal suspension of all active searching is now underway.

Mr Seward said that regardless of any decision on active searching, RCCNZ will continue to evaluate all the available information and any new information that may come to light. In addition, New Zealand’s Maritime Radio is continuing to conduct broadcasts in New Zealand’s search and rescue region, and Rescue Coordination Centre Australia (RCC Australia) is assisting with broadcasts on coastal radio, in the search for new information.

Background

There are seven people on board the schooner Nina, six Americans (three men aged 17, 28 and 58, and three women aged 18, 60 and 73) and a British man aged 35.

To date, the RCCNZ has coordinated nine searches, with an RNZAF P3K2 Orion aircraft completing extensive radar and visual searches of the Tasman Sea. Two other aerial shoreline searches have also been conducted (on 28 and 29 June) but no sign has been found of the vessel or its crew.

The schooner Nina, built in 1928, left Opua on 29 May and was last heard from on 4 June, when the vessel was about 370 nautical miles west-north-west of Cape Reinga. Records show that conditions at the vessel’s last known position were very rough, with winds of 80kmh (force 9) gusting to 110kmh (force 11) and swells of up to 8m.

The vessel is equipped with a satellite phone, a Spot satellite personal tracking device which allows regular tracking signals to be sent manually, and an emergency beacon. The emergency beacon has not been activated.

After concerns were raised by family and friends, the RCCNZ instigated a communications search on 14 June, using a range of communications methods to broadcast alerts to the vessel and others in the area. RCCNZ determined that the vessel should have arrived at its intended destination by 25 June, and aerial searches were instigated when it had not arrived by that date.

Search summary

4 July
An RNZAF P3 Orion conducted a radar search of an area of 120,745 square nautical miles extending as far west as the Middleton and Elizabeth reefs in the Tasman Sea.

2 July
A visual and radar search south of Norfolk Island, covering approximately 2,100 square nautical miles, conducted by the P3 Orion.

1 July
A visual and radar search of approximately 3,780 square nautical miles north of North Cape, conducted by the P3 Orion.

30 June
An extensive visual and radar search by the P3 Orion of 4,830 square nautical miles north-east of Northland.

29 June
A helicopter undertook an extended shoreline search for a liferaft and crew, from Port Waikato to New Plymouth.

28 June
A twin-engine fixed-wing aircraft was tasked to search the shoreline and coast, starting at Tauroa Point, along Ninety Mile Beach, north of Northland and out to and around the Three Kings Islands.

26 June
A search was completed of 324,000 square nautical miles between northern New Zealand and the Australian coast, based on the vessel suffering damage but continuing to make progress towards Australia.

25 June
An RNZAF P3 Orion conducted a radar sweep of 141,000 square nautical miles while transiting from the Cook Islands (returning from an earlier search and rescue mission) to the defined search area of 140,000 square nautical miles, to the immediate north-north-east of New Zealand, based on the vessel being disabled and drifting.

ENDS

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