In the same part of the world and a few years later a ferry pilot in a small aircraft was heading south towards Pago Pago (which is where the other aircraft being discussed had taken off from) but he never found the island and continued on until he was able to contact me at Niue (I dont recall exactly but I think that must have been on VHF). He could not find Niue and of course we had nothing on the ground to help him. Eventually he said he would be ditching while the engine was still running and he still had some daylight. He also said that if he managed to get into his life raft he would turn on his EPIRB at sunrise.
A RNZAF P2 went up from NZ and was in the general area are sunrise when the beacon came on and he was located in a very short time. He was not much further than over the horizon from Niue, maybe 60 miles I forget exactly, be we had no boats able to navigate out of sight of land and there was no commercial shipping located in the area by the Orion. It was arranged by the RCC that a Coast Guard cutter from Pago Pago would go and pick him up but they left without return fuel arranging instead that a tug would follow along behind with more fuel, however the tug returned to Pago Pago for some reason and of course the cutter was left helpless in the South Pacific but with the pilot on board. After a week or so the Orion was back in the area searching for the cutter!
I cannot swear to the accuracy of the bits of this story which did not immediately involve me but I believe it is essentially correct.