Wellington - A New Zealand Air Force plane found no trace of 29 fishermen believed to be drifting in life rafts in the Pacific after a second day of low level searches over thousands of square kilometres of ocean on Friday.

The maritime surveillance Orion returned to Samoa after covering half an identified search area for the crew of the Taiwanese long liner Ta Ching 21 which was found burned out and floating near Kiribati's Phoenix Islands on November 9.

Friday's search was hampered by poor weather and will resume on Saturday. Then, it is likely to be called off if there is no sign of the men, who are believed to have abandoned their boat after it caught fire and taken to three lifeboats.

A Defence Force statement revealed that an initial search for the crew of Taiwanese, Chinese, Filipino and Indonesian nationals from the Ta Ching 21 was conducted by a US Air Force C-130 Hercules on November 12 failed to find them.

Nothing has been heard from the Taiwanese ship since October 28 and Air Force spokesman Squadron Leader Glen Davis said it did not put out a mayday call and the crew had no emergency locator beacons. (dpa)