Air Force begins search for missing yacht

An air force Orion crew has begun searching a huge area north of New Zealand for a missing yacht.

The Orion left Whenuapai air base in Auckland at first light today and was expected to fly towards Tonga after the families of two men reported them overdue on the yacht Bluenose.

Steve Corbett from the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington said the Air Force would be searching 40,000 square nautical miles.

The yacht with two New Zealanders aboard, left Auckland on June 5 and had not be heard from since, he said.

Family members were not initially too worried when the yacht failed to reach Tonga about five or six days after it left Auckland.

They believed it may have hit bad weather and sheltered but yesterday, nearly three weeks after it left Auckland, they contacted search and rescue authorities.

Mr Corbett said rescue authorities did not have an exact position to look.

"We haven't got a lot apart from the beginning and the end so we are going to look in the middle."

He said the Orion would probably fly the most obvious course the yacht would have taken but it was a very large search area.

- NZPA