Pilot killed in 'tremendous' light plane crash at Canterbury lake
Friday, 22 November 2019
A Canterbury man saw a light plane coming down 'at a hell of a speed' before it crashed into the lake near his home.
A Cessna 172 aircraft belonging to Canterbury Aero Club was found crashed on Thursday evening in the dry lake bed of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere near Motukarara, south of Christchurch. The pilot, who was the only person on the plane, died at the scene. The wreckage is yet to be recovered.
Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@stuff.co.nz
Motukarara resident Ross Wilson said he had just put the jug on and was talking to his sister when he saw something coming down 'rapidly' outside his window.
**READ MORE:
* Kaikōura pilot warns drone 'close calls' are causing undue risk
* Young pilot Joshua Christensen 'made all the right calls' before fatal Masterton air crash
* Masterton light plane crash pilots were likely attempting to land: aviation expert**
He told his sister he thought he had seen a plane crash, but she suggested it was probably a meteorite.
'I immediately thought it was a plane, you could just tell by the way it was coming down. You could see the lights on the wings as it was coming directly down.
'There was no explosion … there was no flames, no nothing.
'I just thought, 'well, there will be no hope' … the impact was just incredible.'
The incident happened about 10.15pm and he saw a helicopter fly over soon after, he said.
'I knew then that there was an accident.
'I seen they put the spotlight on the plane and I could see it quite clearly.'
He could still see the tail of the plane sticking out of the mud on Friday morning.
Canterbury Aero Club chief executive Jeremy Ford said: 'It is with great regret that we must report the crash of one of our aircraft on a routine training flight over Lake Ellesmere.
'The pilot has not survived the impact.'
The pilot was a member of the club, and no-one else was on board. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would investigate, Ford said.
'The club is undertaking its emergency response procedure, which will include notifying next of kin. There is no immediate indication of the cause of the crash.'
Maritime NZ's Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) said an emergency location transmitter (ELT) signal was received at 10.20pm from a Cessna 172 aircraft from the Canterbury Aero Club. The emergency location transmitter activated automatically when the plane crashed.
It was established from air traffic control that the plane had left controlled airspace about one hour earlier, near Tai Tapu in the Port Hills east of Lincoln, the RCCNZ said.
Garden City Helicopters general manager Simon Duncan said the Westpac Rescue helicopter crew was 10 minutes into a hospital transfer when they were diverted to the crash at 10.33pm. The crew found the wreckage and confirmed one person had died.
A CAA spokesman said two safety investigators from Wellington and one from Christchurch were being sent to the site on Friday.
They would conduct a visual assessment of the site, including putting a drone up, before the wreckage was recovered.
'Any disturbance of the mudflats around the aircraft could compromise valuable evidence, so it is critical to record everything possible before moving the wreckage.'
He said the plane's occupant was night flying when the aircraft 'suffered a high impact landing on the mud flats'.
Police confirmed RCCNZ called them to the crash on Thursday evening and they were making inquiries.
'The plane was located crashed about 11.20pm by ground search teams,' they said in a statement.
Officers remained at the scene into the early hours of Friday morning. A police spokesman said investigators would likely be at there for several days.
The wreckage was yet to be recovered from the lake bed, he said.
The death will be referred to the coroner. Police were unable to comment further.
Canterbury Aero Club is based at Christchurch International Airport and is New Zealand's largest aero club. It provides training from introductory flights to commercial licenses.
It has a private airfield at West Melton and provides flights and flight training from Rangiora airfield.