Helicopter search grounded

The search for a helicopter missing since Friday with multi-millionaire pilot Michael Erceg and his Dutch passenger on board has been halted today while a meeting is held to decide the next step.

A spokesman for the National Rescue Coordination Centre, Steve Corbett, said a meeting today of land search and rescue personnel and police was assessing the effectiveness of the search efforts to date.

Mr Erceg -- founder of Independent Liquor and New Zealand's ninth richest man -- and beer company executive Guus Klaate left Auckland's Ardmore airport for Queenstown shortly before 10am last Friday.

Mr Erceg's Eurocopter disappeared from radar contact about 30 minutes later.

Despite an extensive search by up to 20 helicopters covering around 20,000 square kilometres around Taranaki and Wanganui over five days, no trace of the aircraft or its occupants has been found.

- NZPA