WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The aerial search for a ferry from Kiribati that sank with 88 people on board, 23 of them schoolchildren, was called off on Friday, almost a week after a group of survivors was found alive in a dinghy.
The Kiribati government has decided to end the international effort to find the 56-foot wooden catamaran, which vanished after it set sail on Jan. 18. Four search planes from the United States, Australia and New Zealand returned to their countries after an extensive search over a wide area of ocean.
Vessels from Kiribati, an independent nation of atolls and islets halfway between Australia and Hawaii, will continue to search for survivors or signs of the ferry.
A passenger list released on Thursday by Radio Kiribati included the names of 10 elementary school students and 13 high school students who were on the ferry, the MV Butiraoi, when it disappeared. Many of the students were on their way to Kiribati’s capital, South Tarawa, for the start of the school year.
The ferry was reported missing when it did not arrive two days after setting sail from Nonouti Island, but New Zealand, which assists with maritime rescues in the area, was not asked for help for more than a week.
On its second day of an aerial search using radar and ocean-current modeling, the New Zealand military found an aluminum dinghy with seven people on board, including a 14-year-old girl, who had survived in the motorless vessel for more than a week with no shade or supplies.
At the time, the New Zealand military said it was “optimistic” about finding more survivors. The passengers rescued from the dinghy said others had escaped the sinking in a life raft after the ferry split in two.
The ferry hit an atoll after setting sail, and repairs were carried out to the propeller shaft.
The New Zealand military said a week of wind and ocean currents meant the search area was growing by the day, and by Monday it had reached 200,000 square miles.
Air Commodore Darryn Webb, a spokesman for the New Zealand effort, said that it was not unusual for the country’s military to be asked for help when boats went missing, and that people often traveled between Kiribati’s atolls in “rudimentary vessels.”
The government of Kiribati told Radio New Zealand International that the vessel had been deemed seaworthy, but that it was ordered not to carry passengers after it sustained damage.
A government inquiry into the sinking has been promised.