Up to 100 people are feared to have been on Pacific island vessel when it capsized

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Australian and American rescue teams have joined the search for survivors from the Kiribati ferry that capsized in the central Pacific more than a week ago.

It was initially estimated that around 50 people were onboard, but according to Kiribati’s president, Taneti Mamau, up to 100 people may have been passengers.

Missing Kiribati ferry: seven passengers found in lifeboat Read more

The president declared a week of prayer in the hope that more survivors would be found as rescue efforts were stepped up, RNZ reported.

Aircraft from Australia and the US Coast Guard will join the search for the MV Butiraoi and its passengers, seven of whom were rescued from a wooden dingy on Sunday after scrambling aboard the flimsy vessel after the ferry sank.

A search and rescue aircraft from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority will start searching west of Kiribati on Monday, while the US Coast Guard’s C-130 Hercules will arrive on Tuesday.

The rescue effort is being run from Fiji by New Zealand’s rescue coordination centre, more than 2,000km south-west of Kiribati, which has a population of around 100,000.

Greg Johnston, senior search and rescue officer with the coordination centre, said a New Zealand air force P-3 Orion aircraft had spent all day Monday searching an area bigger than the whole of New Zealand – 385,000 sq km.

The remoteness of the search area, which lies 800km west of Kiribati, was adding to the challenge of the rescue effort, Johnston said.

A Kiribati marine patrol boat with medical personnel was en route to the FV Lomalo, the fishing boat which picked up the seven survivors on Sunday.

The survivors on the dinghy were reported to be in “reasonable health” despite spending more than a week at sea without water, an engine, or a radio to call for help.

Three men – two in their 20s and one aged 34 – and four females – three in their 20s and one aged 14 – were found on the basic wooden dingy.

A New Zealand airforce Orion dropped emergency supplies of food, water and a radio from the air on Sunday, after spotting them 180km from the nearest major island.

Butiraoi, an inter-island passenger ferry, left Nonouti Island on 18 January for a two-day, 250km trip to Betio, the largest township of Kiribati’s capital city, South Tarawa. The 17-metre wooden catamaran failed to arrive as scheduled on 20 January.

Local authorities said the boat had run aground and undergone repairs to its propeller shaft before it left Nonouti. It has a high frequency radio but it is not known whether it had enough fuel and emergency supplies on board.