After searching for Rescue Coordination on Saturday, then working with the Police Dive Team on Sunday, Raglan’s Coastguard volunteers headed out on Gallagher Rescue for another tough day, this time with the Navy.
While the official opening of Raglan Coastguard’s new Raglan base is on Friday 5th April at 2pm, the hard work of volunteers building the base in the rebuilt wharf buildings was completed just in time for the current emergency. And the new base has coped well with the ongoing work. Chair of the Raglan Community Board Rodger Gallagher said, “I’m totally impressed by the work of our local Coastguard volunteers”
After three days there is still no sign of the wrecked plane carrying 2degrees CEO Eric Hertz and his wife Kathy 30km southwest of Raglan on the coast of the Waikato. Warrant Officer James Harper – officer in charge of the Navy’s Mine Counter Measures team, said a five-hour, 1km-square sonar scan of the ocean floor was carried out afternoon. The sonar device being used captures data which is then analysed on shore. If the wreckage wasn’t found today, then the search area would be widened on Tuesday.
A 20-strong team of Navy, police and Raglan Coastguard volunteers were doing their “utmost” to locate then retrieve the bodies, believed to be in the plane’s wreckage 60 metres below the surface.