Seven people who went missing for days on two small boats in the Pacific Ocean have been found by New Zealand Air Force, near the remote nation of Kiribati.

An 11-year-old boy was among the people who were rescued.

The boats were spotted within 18.5 kilometres of each other after they went missing in separate incidents from the island, a military spokesman said.

He added one boat drifted 280 kilometres away from its intended course while the other boat was closer to Makin Islands, where it had originally gone missing.

The crew on the Orion plane dropped survival kits with water and locator beacons to those on the boat, before contacting boats nearby to rescue them.

Read more from Sky News: Ten people die after tour boat sinks – and 16 others still missing

In a social media post, the Kiribati government announced they made a request to New Zealand to send a search and rescue team before the survivors were found.

Kiribati has a population over 119,000 and does not have its own military.

“It is a great result to be able to find the survivors on both boats,” Air Commodore Shaun Sexton said.

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