Overview
- A pod of sperm whales struck the 16m private yacht Tai Tam about 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island, cracking the hull, smashing steering gear and causing rapid flooding on Saturday.
- The four-person crew spent hours bailing, using expansion foam and inspecting damage before activating their emergency position-indicating radio beacon about 30 minutes after the collision and declaring a full mayday.
- The Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A located the life raft, established radio contact with the sailors and the Rescue Coordination Centre redirected nearby vessels to the scene.
- The 143m container ship MV Sofrana Surville reached the crew around 06:00 on Sept. 27 and took all four aboard about 18 hours after the strike, with no reports of serious injuries as the Tai Tam sank.
- The episode underlines how rare but destructive whale-vessel collisions can be and shows that EPIRBs, life rafts and coordinated military and commercial responses are critical for survival in remote ocean emergencies.