'Reasonably experienced' pilot killed in glider crash near Twizel

Sunday, 7 February 2016

New Zealand's gliding community is hurting after the loss of an experienced Canterbury pilot killed in a glider crash near Twizel.

The Canterbury Gliding Club member, who was flying his own glider, went missing after taking off from Omarama on Saturday and was found on Sunday night He did not survive the crash.

An aerial search found the crash site in mountainous terrain in the Ben Ohau Range, northwest of Twizel, about 7pm on Sunday.

A search party was dropped near the scene to trek to the crash site where the pilot's body was found.

Maritime New Zealand said the name of the pilot, who was the only person on board, would be released once next of kin had been advised.

Gavin Wills, of Glide Omarama, said the Christchurch man was a 'reasonably experienced' pilot who was flying his own aircraft.

He was a member of the Canterbury Gliding Club, Wills said.

Eight aircraft searched for the glider. It was not immediately apparent what had caused the crash, which had been referred to the Civil Aviation Authority.

The pilot, who self-launched using a small motor, made radio contact at 2.06pm on Saturday and was last seen flying north of Omarama at 3.45pm.

At 8.20pm, Omarama Gliding reported the pilot as missing after he did not return at a specified time. A search got under way.

Maritime New Zealand said the search had been difficult because the glider pilot had not left a flight plan nor asked for flight following.

He was carrying a personal locator beacon, which was manually operated and was not activated.

The glider was not fitted with an emergency location transmitter that would activate automatically.

Gliding NZ (GNZ) spokesman Nigel Davy said the Civil Aviation Authority was working to determine whether it or GNZ would investigate the crash.

Davy was involved in the search for six hours, before he stopped for a break on Sunday.

His replacement crew found the wreckage 50 kilometres from the Omarama airfield in a perilous and mountainous location. Searchers set a search radius of 120km to 150km from the airfield.

'It was very steep and it wasn't readily accessible by the helicopter direct to the site. They had to [drop them off] and walk down to it.'

GNZ president Karen Morgan said there were 'no particular concerns' with the conditions on Saturday. The wind was coming from the east.

'It followed a period of exceptionally good dry conditions and most people had flown quite a large amount on the previous five days. When an easterly comes in it's a little bit colder and they elect to sit in the cafe and drink coffee mostly.'

Morgan said the man was a well-respected member of the gliding community, which included 850 pilots and 22 clubs.

'The members of Gliding New Zealand are very saddened by this event; it doesn't happen often for us, and it is always sad when we lose a respected member of our community,' she said.

'I wouldn't consider it a dangerous sport, it's like many other adventure activities. People are injured tramping, doing water sports and other healthy outdoor activities . . . If it was a dangerous sport, I wouldn't be doing it.'