SAR Insights - Christmas Eve on the Whanganui bar
About 5.30pm, on the 24th of December 2021, a member of the public called the Whanganui Coastguard to report they had lost sight of a lone kayak, shortly after it had crossed the river bar into rough seas. There was no other information provided, and it was unclear whether the kayaker was in trouble or not.
The lack of urgency from the caller meant that Coastguard’s communications operator didn’t contact Police immediately. Knowing that any possible response would involve operating in the surf zone, Coastguard began spreading the word with a call to James Newell of the Whanganui Surf Life Saving Club.
In hindsight, these were the initial errors in procedure that led to the operation beginning without formal command and control. Especially when the situation is time-critical, it is tempting to prioritise action, rather than taking a moment to ensure a response has formal coordination.
James called ahead then drove down to the club’s base, about 800m north of the river’s mouth, to assist with launching the first Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) to conduct a hasty search of the bar area.
Meanwhile, volunteers from Whanganui Coastguard were paged to prepare their rescue vessel. At this point, Coastguard con tacted the on-duty SAR Police officer, Detective Simon Beswarick, just before 6pm.
Moments later, Simon received a call from Police comms about a missing dementia patient, so with two jobs on, he called for two more officers from the Police SAR Squad to meet at the station to coordinate their responses. Fortunately, the dementia patient was soon located so Simon could concentrate on one task.
“Coastguard had got their team activated and were ready to get on the water by the time I’d logged the job with Police comms,” said Simon. “We all know and trust each other’s skills and experience, so even though the procedure was a bit out of order, I knew they’d be ready once they got the go-ahead to continue with the operation.”
With Whanganui Coastguard Rescue and an IRB in the water beginning to search, Simon drove out to the North Mole (river mouth breakwater) to interview the initial witness. “The informant thought he recognised the male kayaker,” recalls Simon, so he sent officers around to the kayaker’s house, to find no one home, and the sea kayak missing from its storage hooks.
“The informant noticed the male wearing a personal flotation device, in a proper sea kayak with a skirt, so he appeared well prepared despite the unfavourable sea conditions. Evidence began to suggest that there was indeed someone out there in very rough seas in serious need of assistance.”
Garry Hawkins is the President of Whanganui Coastguard and was on their rescue vessel that day. “When we launched, it was still unclear if there was actually someone in trouble,” Garry recalls. “Police soon informed us that we were probably searching for a well-equipped male kayaker. It was pretty rough out there, with strong westerly winds and a 2 to 2.5 metre swell running, so we knew it was going to be difficult to locate him.”
The North Mole extends roughly 300 metres offshore and with the strong winds parallel to the coast that day, the experienced crew read the conditions and quickly devised a plan. Because of the expertise and local knowledge of the responders, Detective Beswarick was happy to let them develop and execute their plan as the on-scene coordinator.
Image: The mouth of the Whanganui River as seen from the air Courtesy Melissa Churchouse, Horizons Regional Council
It was clear to Garry, and Skipper Mike Carson, how to best search with the IRB. “We didn’t need to talk much with the Surf Life Saving team,” says Garry. “We each knew our own capabilities and skills, so we naturally established a coordinated search effort.” With the IRB travelling along the surf side of the reference line and Whanganui Coastguard Rescue further out to sea, they proceeded as a pair on the search.
But knowing they were looking for a bobbing head in very rough sea, James was not confident of a successful outcome. “From an IRB, we can probably only effectively search a strip 50 metres either side in big surf,” he says. “Even then, you’ve got to be just a little bit lucky to spot someone amongst the breakers.”
On the Coastguard vessel, Garry was having similar thoughts. “We’d been going for roughly half an hour, and about 3 kilometres from the mouth we were thinking that he couldn’t have floated this far.” Like the IRB, the Coastguard’s visual search range was limited in that sea state. “We had begun thinking about our next move and discussing with Police about helicopter support”.
As the minutes dragged by, Detective Beswarick was also starting to think about re-grouping for a more extended operation with formal taskings.
By now, everyone felt the vessels had gone beyond the likely search area and hopes were fading for a quick rescue. But at 7pm Coastguard vessel crew member Jim Lees spotted the kayaker, three kilometres from the river mouth and one kilometre out to sea, and they hauled him aboard to safety. Maintaining mutual support with the IRB, the pair of vessels returned home.
During the debrief, all involved reflected on points where there was room for improvement, but the overwhelming theme of the story was the value of time spent building relationships and mutual trust across all the agencies and individuals involved in the operation.
INSIGHTS
OPERATIONAL DEBRIEFS
These provide a valuable opportunity to identify areas for improve ment, or to reinforce positive practices. Debriefs support lessons management, leading to improved operational effectiveness,
reduced operational risk and increased cost efficiency. In this example, the key areas for improvement were ensuring that standard call out procedures are understood and followed by all the parties.
You can view the "NZSAR Guideline for SAR Operational Debriefing" on our website.
OPERATIONAL CALL OUT PROCEDURES
As the agency responsible for any Category I SAR operation, Police have duties of care and legal responsibilities for the SAR resources and people under their control. Standard call out procedures reflect that, and is important they are followed, especially if things were to go wrong during an operation.
In the heat of the moment, it can be easy for people to act in direct response, rather than taking the important step of following correct procedure. Establishing the correct command and control structure is vital for the safety and effectiveness of an operation, but it is scalable for each job, and need not take excessive time in urgent or less complex situations.
BUILDING RESILIENCE TO ERRORS IN PROCESS
The fact that the informant called the Coastguard directly, and provided ambiguous information probably led to the initial error in procedure to not inform Police. Because of the training and relationships between those involved, the preparations of Surf Life Saving and Coastguard ran as everyone expected, and when Police were eventually informed, they could take on formal command and control without needing to change the actions of the volunteers.
This article was first published in Link Magazine, issue 59, June 2022.