Immediate investigation has begun in the events that saw the loss of two Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldiers and another injured, including a civilian.
This was revealed by the Chief of Defence Force Major General Mark B Goina, during a media brief at the Murray Barracks in Port Moresby on Wednesday afternoon.
Major General Goina conveyed his deepest condolences, and those of all the men and women of the Papua New Guinea Defence, to the loved ones, families and friends of the deceased.
“Their death is a tragic loss to all.”
“Further, as the Defence Minister said yesterday, those who were injured are our highest priority of support, and will remain so as we support their speedy recovery.”
He revealed the names of the two deceased and added that their families and next of kin, have all been informed.
“I will not be naming those injured at this time in order to protect their privacy.”
“The names of the deceased are Leading Seaman Eric Gwale of Morobe and New Ireland descent, employed at HMPNGS Tarangau on Manus and Cpl Watata Kutegen from Enga, employed as instructor at Goldie River Training Depot.”
The Major General Goina had been advised by the Defence Minister to provide more details on the incident, which he did so, while also being mindful not to compromise the investigations into the incident.
“This was a tragic training accident.”
“Those who were killed were not killed in action rather as a result of a tragic accident; just as those who were injured were not wounded in action, rather it was as a result of that same tragic incident.”
“It is the circumstances of how this occurred and respective responsibilities that is now being investigated.”
“Our investigation is being conducted separate to, but in concert with, a police investigation.”
“We are cooperating fully with the police and their investigation.”
He provided that the first members of the investigation team were on site late as of Tuesday afternoon, with the team comprising of very experienced and senior members of the PNGDF and they have been tasked to investigate very aspect of the incident, the immediate lead up to and aftermath, in order to understand how such a tragic incident occurred.
“The team have been given 14 days to do this; at which point their findings will be forwarded to me via the Deputy Chief of Defence Force.”
“It is possible they may require an extension to ensure the thoroughness of their report; such a request will be considered on its merits; and if this occurs the families of the deceased, and those who were injured will be informed, as will the media.”
“The families and those injured will also be briefed on the report’s outcome.”
Goina said following the outcomes of the investigation, he will convene a Board of Inquiry to consider the wider context in which the incident occurred and whether there were systemic failures that might have contributed to it.
“As you will appreciate, the PNGDF is involved in the security of our sovereignty and support for our police, our business by its very nature is dangerous, where the risk of injury or death, particularly on operations is always present.”
He said safety and duty of care are the number one priority for every leader in the Force and when they fail at this, it is incumbent upon the PNGDF to look closely at how it occused and what changes or improvements should made.
“It is my intent that the Board of Inquiry be led by an eminent former member of the PNGDF, and again, include relevant subject matter experts.”
“I will provide more detail on this in due course.”
“The Incident I will now outline in general what happened at Kupiano, noting that the specifics form part of the terms of reference for the investigation.”
Major General Goina further revealed that the deceased and one of the injured were on the final, assessed exercise for a corporal qualifying course.
The other injured person was a civilian, not involved in the exercise. There were 45 students on the course. The deceased and other members of the course were deployed to Kupiano on the 24th of June, and it was during the final activity on 4th of July that the incident occurred.
“On such exercises, blank rounds only are used.” “Some live rounds however, are often issued to nominated personnel in the group for safety and security reasons.”
“There are strict protocols around these as to who gets them and how they are managed.”
“The exercise was a land based exercise involving infantry minor tactics at the section commander level.”
“Course participants were taught how to issue orders and lead a section of soldiers in a series of challenging scenarios over an eight-day period.”
“This included a series of tactical drills.”
He said the final activity was a dawn raid on a notional enemy position in the vicinity of Kupiano Station, where a group of soldiers were acting as the enemy party.
This involved the course assaulting in a formation using fire and maneuver techniques. The enemy party, as is common practice, opened fire on the assaulting group.
This assault, or attack, commenced at 5.45am and at some point it was realised that something had gone tragically wrong, the exercise was immediately stopped and first aid and medivac procedures initiated.
The Commanding Officer from Goldie River Training Depot was on site. All those involved in the incident, students and instructors were bought together.
The incident site was secured and overseen until the police arrived, by road in the early afternoon.
The injured were medivaced by helicopter, and in the early evening the deceased were also repatriated to Port Moresby, by helicopter.
“This is all I’m prepared to say on the incident at this time.”
“As I mentioned, the specifics of what occurred and the actions of all those involved will be detailed in the investigation report.”
Major General Mark Goina closed off the brief with a word of acknowledgement for the people and organizations immediately rallying around the families and the PNGDF in dealing with this very tragic incident.