Three dead after boat capsizes in Manukau Harbour

Saturday, 16 October 2021

Two police cars guard a boat shed just off Little Huia Beach following the call-out of two rescue helicopters and an ambulance.

Three people have died following a boating incident in Manukau Harbour on Saturday afternoon.

A police spokeswoman said emergency services were notified at around 4:40pm that a boat with four people on board had overturned at Manukau Heads, near the bar.

“Police, along with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, Maritime NZ, Surf Lifesaving NZ, Coastguard and St John Ambulance responded to the incident,” she said.

“All four people were located in the water but sadly three of them passed away. The fourth person was flown to hospital in a serious condition.

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“Enquiries into the circumstance of the incident are ongoing.”

A St John’s spokeswoman said two Westpac helicopters and an ambulance are in attendance.

White sheets could be seen behind the door of the shed, outside which two police cars were parked.

“We treated and transported one patient … and they were airlifted to Auckland Hospital by helicopter,” the spokeswoman confirmed.

Two police cars could be seen parked outside a boat shed just off Little Huia Beach at 6.30pm.

Bystanders could see white sheets through a partially open shed door, which appeared to be covering bodies.

Boats could be seen coming in from a day of fishing at Little Huia Beach, where two St John's helicopters had earlier attended a water incident.

Water Safety NZ chief executive Daniel Gerrard is well acquainted with the bar at Manukau Heads, and said it was known as a very difficult area to navigate.

“It's a massive inflow of water into a fairly large harbour,” he said.

He said large surges could affect the waters not only at the bar, but around the bar as well.

“It's one of those situations where you really hope everyone was wearing a life jacket.

“If you’re in less than a six-metre boat you have to put a proper life jacket on.”

Gerrard said the deaths meant at least five people had died in Manukau Harbour over the last eight days.

Last Saturday police retrieved a body after being notified in the early morning of a missing diver near Cornwallis Beach, and on Sunday Kafoa Hala Latu died during a paddling accident in the Manukau Harbour. He had previously worked as a lifeguard and received a police award for rescuing a drowning man.

Latu had been a keen rugby player, who was awarded a contract for the Manly Sea Eagles in Sydney before being offered a move to the United States to play NFL football with the San Francisco 49ers, but a knee injury ended Latu’s NFL dreams.

Manukau Heads has a long history of tragic boating accidents.

In January 2020 o ne person died and two others were hospitalised after a similar boating incident off Manukau Heads and in September the year before Joe Tetou Williams, 56, died during a boat trip with two other people when it capsized in the harbour, near Huia.

The Manukau Heads are also the site of New Zealand's worst maritime disaster.

Relying on outdated harbour charts, the British navy warship Orpheus failed to see that the Manukau Heads sandbar had shifted, and ship ran aground amid a large swell in1863, resulting in the deaths of 189 naval officers, seamen and Royal Marines aboard.