Lady Moana was docked in the international zone of Avatiu Harbour on Sunday night, July 21, 2024, “off limits to the public”. RASHNEEL KUMAR/24072115
Cook Islands Police are expected to finalise their investigations into the missing crew member of the inter-island vessel Lady Moana and submit their report to the coroner.
Police patrol vessel Te Kukupa II
called off the search yesterday for 22-year-old Luke Vakayawa, a Fijian crew
member of the Taio Shipping cargo vessel, who fell overboard over the weekend.
Police strategic and media
advisor Trevor Pitt said the search was stood down following assessment
yesterday morning in discussions with the Maritime Commander.
“This is due to the comprehensive
search conducted by the patrol boat over the past two days. The grid
pattern search covered a lot of the area taking into account the currents,”
Pitt said.
“Only the lifesaver was sighted again, which had been immediately deployed by the Lady Moana crew.”
Also read: Seafarer dad devastated
Vakayawa fell overboard the Lady
Moana cargo vessel while en-route to Rarotonga from Mangaia on Saturday
night/Sunday morning.
On Sunday at around 3.43am, the
police patrol boat received a distress call reporting a man overboard from the
cargo vessel. The crew was mobilised and dispatched early Sunday morning and at
8.45am, reached the location of Lady Moana, which had had no success in
recovering the man, after nine hours.
Both vessels returned to
Rarotonga later on Sunday. Te Kukupa II resumed the search and rescue mission
on Monday morning and returned to the Avatiu Port in the evening without any
success in sighting the missing man.
On Monday, Taio Shipping said
they could not comment at this time as investigations and search efforts were
underway.
Vakayawa arrived in the Cook
Islands in March 2023 and began working for the shipping company. He was
described as shy, both within his family and in the wider community, and was
also a member of Friends of Fiji Inc in Rarotonga.
A memorial service is being
organised by the Friend of Fiji Inc and families in Rarotonga.
This is the second incident
involving Lady Moana where someone has gone missing overboard.
In September 2019, a
seven-year-old boy went missing while returning with his dad from his family’s
home island of Rakahanga.
The ship turned and retraced its
route, as emergency services were called. Police were alerted, and immediately
sent police patrol boat Te Kukupa and a flotilla of Aitutaki fishing and
tourist boats. Air Rarotonga sent a plane, to conduct an aerial grid search.
The search was scaled back and eventually called off two days later.
A subsequent safety assessment by
Maritime New Zealand found significant failings on the company’s ships.
As a result, the MV Grinna II was
approved to carry 12 passengers while MV Lady Moana and MV Maungaroa II were
registered for cargo operation only.
In January, 2020, Pitt said the
final report into the disappearance of the seven-year-old would be provided to
the coroner, for an inquest into responsibility for his death.
Yesterday, Pitt said the missing
young boy who went overboard some years ago on the voyage from the North has
been the subject of a full investigation and that file was submitted to the coroner.
He said the coroner determines
the next steps of these investigations.