Raw Video: Royal NZ Air Force saves four Fijian boaties

A search and rescue operation near Fiji has saved the lives of four missing boaties when a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion aircraft found their swamped vessel and guided rescuers to survivors in the water. One boatie remains missing. The Fijian Rescue Coordination Centre requested assistance from New Zealand with a search for a 28ft fibreglass skiff, with five people on board, missing off the South Coast of Fiji. A P3K Orion aircraft, Kiwi Rescue 771 (KRC771), responded departing Whenuapai Air Base for the search area, arriving and establishing on-task. Within half an hour, KRC771 located a white, swamped, open top vessel. No persons were observed on board, but an immediate search located two people in the water, with life jackets, 1000 metres from their boat. A nearby game fishing boat three nautical miles away was contacted by the RNZAF aircraft and guided to the survivor's location. They then retrieved the two survivors, and a further two survivors were also located. One person remains missing. The RNZAF Orion continued a sector search for the missing person but could not locate them before needing to return to New Zealand.