Crew of Fishing Boat Located by Orion

An Air Force Orion has located a liferaft with three crewmembers from a fishing boat that caught fire 180km northwest of Cape Reinga in the early hours of this morning.

San Rocelle.

The Orion was sent to look for the crew by the Rescue Coordination Centre following a distress call from the vessel at 4:00am.

With the liferaft now located, an Auckland Westpac Rescue helicopter has been sent to rescue the crew and is expected to reach the liferaft at approximately 10:00am.

In the meantime, the Orion will remain overhead to monitor the crew and the subsequent rescue operation.

RCCNZ Search and Rescue Officer John Ashby says that, fortunately, the weather conditions are reasonable with 10-knot southerly winds and swell of one metre.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>