The Pacific Challenger docks at Napier Port after joining the search for a still-missing crew member. Photo / Warren Buckland
The Pacific Challenger docks at Napier Port after joining the search for a still-missing crew member. Photo / Warren Buckland
Police have taken charge of an inquiry into the disappearance of a man from a fishing boat off the coast of Hawke’s Bay and an active helicopter search has been stood down.
The search was suspended on Tuesday evening, about 24 hours after the man was reported as going overboard from a boat around 11km offshore of Waimārama. He went missing around 8pm on Easter Monday.
A police spokesman said officers were working to gather information on the circumstances and will keep working alongside Maritime NZ and Coastguard.
The Pacific Challenger docks at Napier Port after joining the search for a still-missing crew member. Photo / Warren Buckland
Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) ran the search, which included rescue helicopter services from Auckland, Gisborne and Hastings, Coastguard Hawke’s Bay, two NZ Defence Force NH90s and other vessels in the area.
An RCCNZ spokesperson confirmed there was no active search on Wednesday morning.
Kelley Waite, helicopter crewwoman and emergency medical technician for Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust, was involved in the search from 9pm on Monday to 4.30am on Tuesday and said it was a struggle to find signs of the missing man.
“As far as the information we had, he was wearing dark clothing, he was off the back of the boat, and he had been gone for an hour by the time we got out there. So that’s all we had to go on. We were out looking for a person in the water, hopefully splashing, but when you are wearing dark clothes at night, it’s super hard,” Waite said.
“We had probably the best conditions to find someone that night [on Monday] ... the moon came out, the sea was pretty flat there were no white caps.”
She said all anyone in her crew wanted was to find the missing person and they were all focused on the difficult situation and potentially lengthy search.
“You can only be hopeful, we were told there was every chance that he could still be floating out in the ocean [on Tuesday] morning and that drives you.”
In a statement on Tuesday evening, RCCNZ said the helicopters and supporting vessels were sent back to shore just before nightfall after a sustained search effort.
A review was set to take place overnight.
‘Grid search’ tracking of the three rescue helicopters involved in the search on Tuesday. Photo / Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter
Coastguard Hawke’s Bay president Henry van Tuel said earlier that the vessel from which the man had gone missing was the Pacific Challenger.
Hawke’s Bay deputy harbourmaster Adrian Wright said the circumstances of how the man ended up overboard were unclear and it was not known if he was wearing a lifejacket.
