An attempt to recover a fishing boat that sank off the Canterbury coast last year, killing three people, has stalled after equipment crucial to its salvage stopped working.
Terry Booth, Paul Bennett and Jared Husband died aboard the 90 tonne vessel Jubilee when it sank last October.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) said divers yesterday attached airbags to the wreck to float it to the surface, and a salvage team planned to tow it back to Lyttelton.
But its chief investigator of accidents, Tim Burfoot, said there was a malfunction with some of the airbags used - and that, combined with a southerly wind, has stalled the operation.
It could take more than a week to replace the airbags, which have to be shipped in from the United Kingdom.