KEY POINTS:
One man is dead and two others are in serious condition in hospital after a boating accident near Wanganui last night.
The deceased, a 19-year-old man, was on a fishing trip with hi s 44-year-old father and the owner of the boat, a 32-year-old man.
Senior Constable Barry Billows said the three men had been in the water since the boat went down between 7pm and 8pm yesterday and were pulled from the water at 8.40am today.
The survivors were admitted to hospital, one in critical condition.
Police grew concerned for the group's safety last night when they failed to return from a recreational fishing trip as expected at 8pm.
An aerial search was launched this morning and the men were spotted from the plane about 3.6 nautical miles off the coast towards the Whangaehu River mouth.
The men taken to the Wanganui Port, where an ambulance took the survivors to hospital.
Mr Billows said they were not sure what had happened as they had been unable to interview the men.
"We can probably fairly well guess that on the way in they've hit a log or something like that but we won't know for sure until we can talk to the both of them."
- NZPA
