By Lucy Craymer
(Reuters) -A Royal New Zealand navy vessel ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu in Samoa on Saturday, the New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement.
All 78 people on board the dive and survey vessel HMNZS Manawanui are in life rafts and accounted for, Commodore Shane Arndell, the maritime component commander of the New Zealand Defence Force, said in a statement.
An Air Force P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane has been sent to assist the rescue operation, he added.
The incident happened as the vessel was conducting a reef survey, he said.
HMNZS Manawanui is the navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, used to conduct a range of specialist diving, salvage and survey tasks around New Zealand and across the South West Pacific.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Lucy Craymer in Wellington; Editing by Mike Harrison)
