An aeroplane and coastguard search following a mayday call was called off by police at 3.45 on Saturday afternoon.


An afternoon search following a mayday call was called off by police on Saturday. File Photo.

Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker says police requested Tauranga Coastguard search an area of a 10 mile radius of A Beacon at 1.15pm on Saturday following the VHF call heard on the channel 16 frequency.
At about 2pm the cloud level was sufficient for an aeroplane search to take place says Simon.
The aeroplane searched the wider area until 3.15pm.
Coastguard continued to search until 3.45pm, when police called off the search off.
Simon says the search was difficult given that information was vague.
'It was one of those things that took a bit of guess work.”
Senior sergeant Stu Graham says the search stopped as the police had no information to do anything further.