Source www.Stuff.co.nz
Two dead in two plane collision
09 February 2006
Two people are confirmed dead after two light planes collided near Shannon in the Manawatu this morning.
Inspector Michael Coleman said two planes from Massey crashed in mid air near Shannon, 33km southwest of Palmerston North.
Both the sole occupants have been confirmed dead, he said.
Police were at the two crash sites and Civil Aviation had been advised, he said.
Local resident Brian Jones told NZPA he was outside pruning fruit when he heard a huge bang.
"I was outside when I heard a bang and that's when the plane did a whirly-down to the ground," said Mr Jones, 75, who lives near the site of the accident.
"After that I saw a wing come down."
Mr Jones, who rents a farm house in Opiki, northwest of Shannon, said the accident happened around 10am.
"All the fire service is out there. . . there are police cars in all directions and an ambulance."
Mr Jones, retired, said he only saw one plane go down.
"The plane is just lying there in a field."
The planes crashed on the Opiki farm of Rodney Hudson.
Mr Hudson said the planes were both from the Massey Aviation flight training school in Palmerston North.
The farm had been cordoned off and emergency services were on the scene, he said.
Opiki resident Rachel Taylor said she heard a "big bang" and ran out of her home to see what appeared to be tinfoil falling out of the sky.
Mrs Taylor said her home – where she and her husband are dairy farmers – was only two paddocks away from the crash site but the site was obscured by trees.
"By the time I walked outside there were already lots of tractors and motorbikes at the site and I was really amazed at how quickly all the services got there."
Mrs Taylor said she even though she was looking at the wreckage she had no idea what it was.
"It doesn't even look like a plane."
Mrs Taylor said it was not until her husband, Wayne, called her that she knew that it had been a plane crash.
"He was working on the other side of the crash site and he called to make sure I wasn't hurt or that it hadn't hit our property."
Mrs Taylor said the wreckage site was a "total mess on the ground".
The two Massey University pilots killed were believed to have been training for their commercial licenses, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer said.
The New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre was alerted to the crash about 10am after a report of wreckage on the ground north of Shannon.
Mr Sommer said no-one else was believed to be on either plane.
Ken Mitchell, a communications manager for Airways New Zealand, which is responsible for air traffic in controlled airspaces, said the planes were in an uncontrolled space, where pilots took responsibility for their own navigation and safety.
Mr Sommer said the Accident Investigation Commission or Civil Aviation Authority would now be investigating.
Authorities have closed the air space over the crash sites, and police are restricting ground travel in the area.
Massey University's School of Aviation started in 1990, and in 1998 expanded to Auckland.
In 2003, consultants recommended consolidating the operation on the Palmerston North campus and the Flight Systems Centre at Palmerston North Airport.
At that time its target was to graduate 40 new airline pilots a year, along with graduates in associated aviation professional fields.
A local farmer, who lives around 700m from the crash site, said he rushed to the crash site of one of the planes and saw a body in the mangled wreckage.
"The pilot in the first plane was dead. We didn't actually realise there was a second plane until a neighbour came over and said there was another plane," said the man, who didn't want to be named.
He then went to the site of the second crashed plane about 300m away.
"That plane looked like it had nosed into a drain and it was upside-down," he said.
"One of the farmers tried to climb in through the tail of the second plane to get a pulse (from the pilot) but I don't think he could actually get to him," he said.
He said both planes were mangled and there was a strong smell of fuel.
The man said two builders who were working outside on his house heard the plane go down and raised the alarm.
"I ran outside and saw the last flakes of the plane coming down," he said.
He then rang the police and went to the crash sites.
"I think the wing fell off the first one," he said.
The man said another plane was in the area spraying potatoes around the time of the crash, as well as a helicopter.
"There were a lot of aircraft in a small area and things got a bit haywire," he said.
"I think the two planes [which crashed] were practising emergency landings. . . you know when they cut the engines," he said.