WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND (AP) – Rescuers yesterday continued to search for one person still missing a day after a chartered fishing boat carrying 10 people sank in a storm off the New Zealand coast.
A helicopter rescued five people from the sea, and four bodies have been recovered.
The 17-metre boat got into trouble and its emergency beacon was activated at 8pm on Sunday off North Cape on the northern coast.
A helicopter became the first search and rescue vehicle to reach the remote location at 11.40pm, said spokesman for Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre Nick Burt.
“The weather really hampered the response from the aircraft. There was thunderstorms, dangerous flying conditions, so that was the earliest we could get to the scene,” Burt said.
The boat was confirmed sunk at 2.30am, he said. Weather conditions were more favourable for the search yesterday, with a navy patrol boat coordinating, helicopters in the air and ground crews scouring the shoreline, Burt said.
Two bodies in the water were recovered by helicopter yesterday morning, and another two were recovered by search vessels, police said.
The five people rescued by helicopter were admitted to Kaitaia Hospital and later discharged.
A meteorologist with New Zealand’s weather agency MetService said gale-force winds had whipped up rough seas around North Cape at the time the alarm was raised.
But conditions eased in the area later in the night as the search began and the storm system moved south, he said.
The fishing boat had left the northern port of Mangonui on Thursday, the Stuff news website reported.
