Aircraft almost cleared summit

Less than 20 metres was the difference between disaster and safety in Tuesday's fatal plane crash on Mt Taranaki.

Searchers yesterday discovered that the twin-engined Piper Seneca II was so close to clearing the mountain that it may have even flown through a narrow gap in the crater wall before ploughing into the summit a short distance away.

The plane lay fewer than 20 metres from the top of the mountain, with the bodies of the two men aboard still inside.

The dead were Air Nelson engineer John Hoskin, 63, and Nelson pilot Wayne Stratford, 41.

"Another few metres altitude and the plane would have missed. It looks like it was very close to getting there," said searcher John Jordan.

The Nelson-based Flight Corporation Ltd plane, on a flight from New Plymouth to Nelson, suddenly disappeared from radar at 9.53am on Tuesday.

Bad weather prevented aerial searching, but a ground party spotted the wreckage just before dark.

Yesterday morning a team of three experienced climbers and a police photographer climbed to the crash site.

Climber Stephen Miller said it was obvious that neither of the crew could have survived.

"The nose area is very badly damaged and the fuselage is crushed, but the wings are intact. The plane is sitting on a slope of less than 45 degrees inside the crater."

Mr Miller said the searchers believed the plane flew through a gap in the crater rim before crashing inside the crater just below the summit about 60 metres further on.

"But obviously we'll never really know. All we do know is that if the plane had been 20 metres higher, it would have cleared the mountain."

Police will return to the scene once the weather improves to remove the bodies.

- NZPA