A fishing boat has collected seven people in a dingy found in the search for a Kiribati ferry that's been missing in the Pacific for more than a week.
A New Zealand Air Force Orion aircraft located the four to five-metre dinghy on Sunday and took images as the boat diverted to the scene to pick up the group.
"The group seem very relieved to have been found when the New Zealand Air Force Orion dropped supplies, including water and a radio, to them about 10am today," says Rescue Co-ordination Centre of New Zealand (RCCNZ) Senior Search and Rescue Officer John Ashby.
Mr Ashby said the dinghy was understood to be one of two carried on the missing ferry, MV Butiraoi, and was located within a search area in the Pacific as large as New Zealand in size.
Local authorities were alerted to the missing 17m wooden catamaran after it failed to arrive in Betio on January 20, having left Nonouti island two days prior.
The RCCNZ received a request for aerial assistance on Friday.
Kiribati authorities say the ferry underwent repairs to its propeller shaft before leaving Nonouti.
