Questions were being asked yesterday about why the Coastguard Queenstown unit - Queenstown Airport Rescue - was not called to assist at the scene of a fatal incident on the Kawarau River on Thursday.
One woman was killed and six people were taken to hospital, with one later flown to Dunedin by the Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter with serious injuries, after a jet-boat carrying 22 passengers flipped after hitting a sandbar at the confluence of the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers at 2.45pm on Thursday.
Two of the injured passengers remained in Lakes District Hospital in Queenstown yesterday for observation, and one was in Dunedin Hospital with a dislocated shoulder.
The close-knit Queenstown community rallied around Kawarau Jet director Andrew Brinsley and his staff yesterday.
The Otago Daily Times understands staff were taken by boat to the scene of the incident, where they placed flowers in the river.
Queenstown Lakes District Council harbourmaster Marty Black said Coastguard Queenstown was not called because it had not previously operated on the Kawarau River.
However, Coastguard Queenstown president Jay Berriman said if the volunteers had been called they would have responded.
The 8.5-m, 3.5-tonne Naiad jet unit, a dedicated rescue boat, had not been fully tested on the river but did have the ability to travel on it, he said.
Coastguard Queenstown was an agent for the police, Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand in Wellington, Queenstown Airport, fire and ambulance, and had to be paged before it could respond.
However, under Maritime New Zealand rules, if called, the Coastguard has to respond.
"It's part of Maritime rules . . . if you're called for assistance, then you go. We weren't called."
While the full-scale Search and Rescue boat was more efficient on larger bodies of water and designed for sea use, there was a strategic plan for the unit to become operational on the confluence of the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers, Mr Berriman said.
"It's a lake vessel and we are a lake unit [but] it's part of our strategic plan. [Naiad] has never been tested on that river . . . but if the police had called us and said `We need you at the confluence,' then we would have gone."
Emergency services arrived about 3pm on Thursday, but the woman, aged in her mid 40s, was not removed from the overturned boat until just before 4.30pm, despite requests from her companions for earlier action.
A St John officer said there was initial confusion about numbers on the boat, but when it became apparent a person was unaccounted for, helicopters were called to assist with aerial searches, while other jet-boats scoured the river.
Mr Black yesterday defended the handling of the rescue, saying it had been imperative rescuers were patient.
After helicopters and jet-boats did a "quick search" up and down the river on Thursday, divers, police, and a Squirrel B3 helicopter took their time "to do it properly", Mr Black said.
"You don't put other people at risk."
The ODT understands there were delays waiting for the Heliworks B3 heavy-lift helicopter, the sturdiest available, to be prepared to lift the hull of the boat, for specialist Queenstown-based divers to arrive, and for all parties to be briefed on the rescue plan.
The shingle in the river was too soft to use a digger to lift the boat.
It was the second fatal incident on the Kawarau River in five months.
Emily Louise Jordan (21), of Worcester, England, died on April 29 when she drowned while on a commercial river-boarding expedition after becoming wedged underwater between rocks in the river, just upstream from the Roaring Meg power station.
Destination Queenstown chief executive David Kennedy said it was too soon to tell what effect, if any, Thursday's incident would have on Queenstown's reputation internationally as a tourism destination, but the Queenstown community was feeling for all those involved with Kawarau Jet.
"It's a tragedy and we're all devastated," he said.
Kawarau Jet was a responsible company which operated at the highest level of compliance, he said.
"Every operator takes their business extremely seriously. They're also aware that the quality of their business affects the whole tourism industry in Queenstown. It's always difficult to know what impact an incident [like this] might have.
"Most of the time, they turn out to be accidents and people understand that they're accidents, and in that case it has more minimal effects. We fully expect that to be the case [in the Kawarau Jet incident]."
The company has suspended operations, Mr Brinsley describing the incident as the blackest in the company's 47-year history.
Police, Maritime New Zealand and the Traffic Accident Investigation Commission have started investigations, and some passengers were interviewed yesterday.
Kawarau Jet representatives are due to meet Maritime NZ at 9am today as part of the investigation.
No decision has been made on when the company will resume river operations.
Queenstown Police declined to comment last night.
