Navy Completes Mission Off Queensland Coast

Department of Defence Media Mail List

MSPA 121/09 Saturday, 4 April 2009

Navy Completes Mission Off Queensland Coast

HMAS Ships Yarra and Norman have completed their mission to search, locate and mark the position of 31 containers that were lost overboard from the cargo ship Pacific Adventurer during Cyclone Hamish.

Norman and Yarra have searched 32 square nautical miles of seabed, identifying and obtaining vision of twenty-five containers with their mine disposal vehicles. Six further sonar contacts have been located in the same area.

Commander Dean Schopen, Commander of the Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving Task Group, is very confident these are the remaining containers.

“These further sonar contacts show a strong resemblance to those which have now been positively identified as the missing containers. Weather and sea conditions, however, have prevented the ships’ mine disposal vehicle from obtaining video imagery of all 31 containers,”said Commander Schopen.

“There is one final window of opportunity on Sunday in which we will attempt to deploy the mine disposal vehicle; however the current weather forecast is not looking favourable.

“The two crews have persisted through a difficult weather conditions over the past couple of weeks to deliver a good result for the people of Queensland and mariners who use the area”.

The positions of the containers have been passed to Emergency Management Australia and Maritime Safety Queensland.

Yarra commenced searching search operations on Wednesday 18 March 2009. Norman joined the search on Friday 20 March 2009.

Both ships will return to their homeport of HMAS Waterhen in Sydney and continue with their scheduled programmes.

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