Tauranga Airport plane crash: Witness tells of aircraft’s ‘high-speed impact’ into water

A man who watched a plane take off and crash in front of him says he’d be “buying a Lotto ticket” if he were the pilot who escaped uninjured.

Emergency services were called to reports of a light aircraft crash at Tauranga Airport just after 1.20pm yesterday.

Emergency services could be seen at the western end of the airport’s runway and a wrecked aircraft was seen sitting at the water’s edge.

A police spokeswoman said the pilot got out and there were no reports of injuries.

Mike Visser was on the runway at Tauranga Airport waiting to take off in his own aircraft when the crash unfolded in front of him.

“I was 100 per cent certain that I’d just witnessed a fatal accident,” he told the Bay of Plenty Times.

As Visser was waiting for a break in the traffic to take off, he watched the aircraft take off “and then it appeared to lower the nose which is normally an indication he’s lost power”.

“And then it seemed to correct itself but then he went into a right-hand turn to apparently try and get back to the airfield and then the turn just got steeper and steeper until it was basically a dive followed by a rather large splash which was visible - I was about a kilometre away from the end of the runway where he’s gone off.

“It was fairly unsettling ... the tower just told everyone to return to base and I just shut down and got out of the aircraft and there were a lot of people on the field that were quite shaken up about it.”

“From where I was sitting, it looked like a fairly high-speed impact.

“To be honest I wouldn’t have thought it was survivable but apparently he’s walked away from it. I would be buying a Lotto ticket if I was him.”

Visser said it was hard to estimate how high the plane was before it crashed, but said it could have been about 400 to 500 feet (about 120-150 metres)-up.

He understood it was a pilot who had built his own aircraft and had just started flying it.

A Bay of Plenty Times reporter at the scene shortly afterwards said emergency services could be seen gathered at the western end of Tauranga Airport, including ambulance staff and firefighters.

A light aircraft has crashed at Tauranga Airport this afternoon. Photo / Mead Norton

The wreckage of a plane was seen at the water’s edge, off the western end of the Tauranga Airport runway, with police officers making their way towards it.

The plane was understood to be a Rutan Long-EZ model.

Aircraft engineer Colin Alexander said he saw the crash happen as the plane had been travelling from the golf course end of the runway towards Tauranga Harbour Bridge.

Airport manager Ray Dumble said there was not yet any indication of what caused the crash.

Access to Whareroa Marae and the Whareroa boat ramp, near the area of Tauranga Harbour where the plane crashed, was closed by police.

Hera Napijalo, kaimahi at Te Kohanga Reo O Whareroa, said she was at the water’s edge with some children when they saw white debris floating their way.

They looked up to where it was coming from and saw the plane in the water, and a man - who she believed was the pilot - was wading around trying to collect some of the bigger chunks from the water.

Given the water was too deep for them to reach the plane, they were worried for him.

“It was a bit scary.”

A helicopter soon arrived and, hovering over the plane, its occupants appeared to check on the pilot.

”He said, ‘I’m all good’.”

Napijalo said that soon after three other people came running into the water from the dock to see if the pilot was okay.

Speaking to them afterwards, she said the pilot told them he was okay, just embarrassed.

Emergency services at Tauranga Airport after a light plane crashed into Tauranga Harbour. Photo / Mead Norton

She understood the pilot had called some friends, who quickly arrived at the scene and ran to the pilot.

A student pilot, who asked not to be named, told the Bay of Plenty Times she was flying circuits at the time of the crash.

”While I was up there I heard on the radio there was a crash. They just made me keep flying and told me when it was safe to land.

“There was so much other stuff going on that I just had to wait for the right time to circle around and land.”

She was heard on the radio there was one person in the plane and they had “made it out”.

She did not see the crash happen but said her instructor witnessed it from Tauranga Airport.

”I knew it was a big deal but you don’t realise how big of a deal it was until you land.”

Another person working near where the plane crashed said she heard “lots of sirens” as emergency services went to the scene.