Three weeks have passed since six Americans went missing during sailing trip in New Zealand, officials said on Thursday.
Three males, three women, and a 35-year-old British man were on 70-foot schooner Nina traveling to Newcastle, Australia, according to NBC News reports.
The ship reportedly left the Bay of Islands area of northern New Zealand on May 29, and no one has officially heard from the missing passengers since June 4.
Authorities said the emergency beacon on the boat has not been activated. Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand search and rescue mission coordinator Kevin Banaghan told NBC News "a military aircraft had covered a 160,000 square nautical mile search area on Tuesday, with an additional 324,000 square nautical miles examined on Wednesday."
According to Fox News, rescue crews are working intensely to find the missing people. Air Force planes searched areas where the boat was reportedly last spotted. The Nina, built in 1928, is equipped with a satellite phone and a spot beacon that allows tracking signals to be sent manually.
Cherie Martinez told Fox news that her mother, Caryl Dyche, allegedly received a strange phone call on June 13. Her brother David Dyche and his wife are reportedly on the lost ship.
"She said she heard 'Caryl' and that there was a lot of static," Martinez said. "You wonder, are they lost at sea?"
Martinez said her 58-year-old brother has been sailing since he was a boy and is more than capable of steering the ship.
"When he was a boy, he'd take our little 21-foot sailboat and sail with no navigation over to the Bahamas [from Florida] and back just to say he could do it," Martinez told Fox News. "These people are pretty seasoned sailors. They could go back to sailing the boat with manual equipment if need be."
