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Divers continue long, deep and difficult searching for missing soldier

Sunday 30 September 2012, 7:46PM

By New Zealand Police

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WAIOURU

There is still no sign of soldier Private Michael Ross who was lost overboard on Tuesday night at Lake Moawhango, near Waiouru, while on a training exercise.

Inspector Steve Mastrovich, Ruapehu Area Commander, says the search by members of the Police National Dive Squad and the Royal New Zealand Navy operational dive team has continued throughout the weekend.
The Auckland Police Maritime Unit has arrived with a large RHIB and team of people to replace the Whanganui Coastguard vessel which has been supporting the operation in recent days.

“It is a long and laborious task for the divers working in cold, deep and difficult territory,” he said.  “The lake is a flooded river valley and the divers are having to contend with a range of items and obstacles that you would not normally find in a natural lake.

“The gullies, hills, creek beds, trees and the depth of the lake (more than 40 metres in places) puts constraints on how long the divers can be underwater before resting.”

Inspector Mastrovich said the plan is that the divers will continue diving on unidentified targets until all avenues are exhausted.  There are no plans to scale the search back at this stage.

“The divers have been using sonar equipment to help pin point potential areas of interest.  We’ll assess search plans once we are sure that the areas of interest have been well covered.”