Power outage strikes Australia's biggest warship during aid mission

Australia's biggest warship has suffered an "outage" during an aid mission to Tonga, the Department of Defence has confirmed.

The Federal Government has confirmed that back-up power has been activated on the HMAS Adelaide, and denied reports that systems including sanitation and refrigeration were shut down.

Civilian experts are now heading to the warship to conduct an assessment of the affected systems, the Defence Department said in a statement.

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"Defence can confirm that HMAS Adelaide has experienced a power outage."

"Back-up power has been activated to restore essential systems.

"The situation is being closely monitored and the safety of the ship and the embarked personnel remains our highest priority."

Officials denied reports the HMAS Adelaide had been 'stranded' by the power outage.

It has also not affected the Australian Government's ability to deliver aid to Tonga, the Defence Department stressed.

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The incident is the second setback for the aid mission after last month's devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Last month 23 people aboard the naval ship tested positive for coronavirus.

The vessel sailed from Brisbane and arrived in Tonga last week.

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