Two missing bodies likely washed out to sea

Divers have faced challenging conditions around Whakaari / White Island. Photo: NZ Police

The two remaining bodies missing since the White Island eruption are likely to have been washed out to sea, police say.

Tour guide Hayden Marhsall-Inman, 40, and Australian tourist Winona Langford, 17, are the two people who have not yet been found.

It is believed their bodies were washed out of the crater and into the ocean. The police dive squad has searched for them without success.

Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said this afternoon the two bodies were near a stream that ran off the island. There was a significant weather event overnight on December 9 and police believe the bodies have not been on the island since December 10.

Searchers looked for Langord's body in the stream, aware she could have been buried in sediment. Inman's body was already thought to be in the sea.

The stream was searched three times, and aerial imagery also confirmed the two bodies were no longer there.

It is Clement's "strong view" that the bodies of Langford and Marshall-Inman were washed out to sea.

"What we know is on the 11 of December there was a body of a male off the coast in the bay adjacent to the jetty and we believe that person to be Hayden Inman" - although there was not a visual identification.

Since the 9th of December there has been no sighting of Langford's body.

Clement has just been with Langford's extended family for over an hour and has walked them through the police belief that her body is in the sea, and they have accepted that view.

The 17-year-old's parents Kristine Langford, 45, and Anthony Langord, 51, also died in the Whakaari tragedy. Her brother Jesse Langford, 17, is the only member of his family who survived and remains in a coma in Sydney's Royal North Shore hospital.

Clement said the sea had been searched near the jetty, where the stream enters the sea, and further out into the bay.

Aerial searches and the navy's sonar have been used to search the sea bed and where there have been images of interest, divers have looked closer.

Police have also been doing intense aerial searches of an area 5.5 to 6 nautical miles off the island.

On advice of locals including pilots, fishers and tour operators, police have also directed their search toward East Cape which is where the tide would have taken the bodies.

Clement said police were "deeply sorry" that they had not found the bodies. "We haven't given up ... but we have reached a phase where we are literally in the hands of the sea."

The air force will continue searching the area east of White Island.

Anyone wanting to undertake a private search of the East Cape is not discouraged from doing so.

Clement earlier told RNZ the chance of finding Langford and Marshall-Inman's bodies was slim.

Regional police will take over the operation in a few days.

GNS Science volcanologist Nico Fournier said in the night following the eruption, the data suggested there had been an unusually large mudflow in the crater area where the two missing people were last seen.

The situation on the island remains quite uncertain. The volcano's alert level remains at Level 2, and there is a low (20-40 per cent) likelihood there would be another eruption within the next 24 hours.

"An explosive eruption from the main vent area remains possible and could still occur with no precursory activity, especially if there is a collapse of unstable material around one of the vents, or if the gas emission decreases allowing groundwater to enter the vent. Sudden steam/gas eruptions from other active vents are also possible," GNS Science said.

Poor weather hampered the recovery efforts yesterday.