The Hi-Tech Remus 100 sonar probe deployed on Monday 1st April from Raglan Coastguard’s Gallagher Rescue found a large interesting object. Sergeant Warren Shaw of the Waikato Police’s Search and Rescue Squad said an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) provided by the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Mine Countermeasures Team had been used yesterday to map out an area of 1000m square, 30 km south west of Raglan. Today the team would be focussing on a particular area. Mr Shaw said the focus for the combined team is identifying what the object found at 56m below the surface is and locating and returning the bodies of the plane’s occupants to their loved ones. Pilot Eric Hertz, 58, and his wife Katherine, 64, were travelling to Christchurch when their plane radioed that it was going down at about 12.20pm on Saturday.
“This torpedo like device, known as the Remus 100, collected data from the ocean floor which enabled us to build up a picture of what was down there and identify a large object of interest.
“This in turn enabled us to focus our attentions on a particular area of ocean and this morning at first light a multi-agency team comprising of Police, Raglan Coastguard, Navy personnel and a crash investigator headed back out to the scene off Gannet Rock where they deployed a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle or ROV.”
Officer Commanding the Navy’s Mine Countermeasures Team, Warrant Officer James Harper, said the ROV was a device that enabled images to be taken of the object of interest that will confirm if it is the aircraft or not.
“We’re fortunate that the equipment and expertise available is world leading and we have experience in this type of operation so we’ll be doing our best to identify the object that has been found.”