WELLINGTON, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand air force on Wednesday resumed its search for three fishermen from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati who have been missing for more than a week.
A P-3K2 Orion surveillance aircraft took off from the Kiribati capital of Tarawa and was expected to search for up to nine hours for the fishermen, who were last seen leaving Tarawa in a 5-meter wooden boat on Nov. 1.
The search area had been expanded to 16,000 square nautical miles and was located halfway between Tarawa, the island nation of Nauru and Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, Air Commodore Darryn Webb said in a statement.
The Kiribati search vessel Nakoraoi was assisting in the search.
