A New Zealand Air Force Orion is searching the sea south of Tonga for a ship's captain who has fallen overboard.
The crew of the container ship, the Fiji Two, raised the alarm when the captain was lost overboard about 300 kilometres from Tonga last night.
The National Rescue Coordination Centre says life-buoys have been dropped into the sea and the ship is still in the area.
A Rescue spokesman says the Orion left Whenuapai Airbase to conduct a low level search of the sea early this morning.
