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Crew members on an air force Orion were manning every available window today to conduct a visual search for 29 fishermen missing from their burned out boat in the Pacific Ocean off Kiribati.
The Orion left Samoa at first light today to continue to search a 54,000 square kilometre search zone for three 10-man liferafts missing from the Taiwanese long line boat, the Ta Ching 21.
The burned hulk was found by a Korean fishing boat near the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati on November 9 but there was no sign of the liferafts.
The New Zealand air force Orion has been searching since earlier this week but has been unable to use its search radar because the liferafts gave off no signal, said air force spokesman, Squadron Leader Glenn Davis.
"It is a visual search and basically it is eyes and windows," he said.
He said conditions were good with a small chop, but even in a small chop a small liferaft would be hard to spot.
"If they are in the search area, if anyone's going to find them it will be the Orion,' he said.
The last signal from the boat was on October 28 and it was found abandoned and gutted on November 9. An American air force Hercules searched the area before the New Zealand Orion was sent to the area from a routine patrol.
Mr Davis said it was not known how well equipped the liferafts were and how much food and water there was to keep the crew alive - even if they had managed to get into them when the fishing boat caught fire.
The crew was thought to comprise of Taiwanese, Chinese, Filipino and Indonesian nationals.
Mr Davis said after today's grid search, the operation would be reassessed but the crew was approaching its safe time limits and if they had to fly again a relief crew might be sent from New Zealand.
He said the crew had been flying 12 hour days and for safety reasons had to have some rest time.
- NZPA
