WELLINGTON -- The New Zealand Air Force resumed a search Friday for 29 fishermen whose burnt out Taiwanese boat was found floating near the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati nearly two weeks ago, officials said.

An air force Orion aircraft is planning to search a vast 54,000 square kilometer (21,000 square mile) expanse of the Pacific Ocean in search of the crew members, who include Taiwanese, Chinese, Indonesians and Filipinos.

The aircraft started the search Thursday and is expected to complete scanning the area on Saturday, air force spokesman Squadron Leader Glenn Davis said.

Davis admitted chances of success are slim for the search, which is being coordinated by the Fiji Rescue Coordination Centre.

The last known communication from the long line fishing boat, the Ta Ching 21, was on October 28.

The burnt out Taiwanese fishing boat was found deserted but still afloat by a Korean fishing vessel on November 9.

"The problem for us is they might have had to abandon ship on the 29th of October, we don't know," Davis said.

"Then there's a big gap until the ship was discovered round about November 9 and then we joined the search yesterday.”

A search of the boat revealed three life rafts and a rescue boat were missing, raising hopes the crew had been able to safely abandon the vessel.

"It was always going to be a long shot, and to be perfectly honest we don't even know if they got into the life rafts," Davis said.

"We are assuming on the best information provided that the crew are all safe and were able to deploy the life rafts with enough water to survive that length of time."

A US military plane overflew the area on November 9, without seeing any sign of the missing fishermen and a French frigate and its helicopter helped with the search on Thursday.