KEY POINTS:
A fresh salvage operation will be launched today to haul a plane out of the Te Puna Estuary after a remarkable emergency landing yesterday.
Pilot Paul Ensor said an attempt would be made with air bags and a digger to winch his "livelihood" to safety after rescue operations failed yesterday at the site, about 12km west of Tauranga Airport.
But Mr Ensor, who walked away unscathed after his crash-landing, did not hold out much hope.
"It's looking like it's going to be parts now because the tide's running through it. The water's waist-deep out there."
Mr Ensor, owner of Island Air Charters, was flying his twin-engine Britten-Norman Islander from Tauranga to Hamilton when one engine failed and then the other.
"I was trying to get back to Tauranga because it can fly on one, but it didn't bloody keep going on one, unfortunately," the 40-year-old said.
"I was all right at first, but I was starting to think, 'There are not a lot of options here'."
Faced with a difficult landscape of hills and orchards, the pilot of 17 years' experience headed for the coast.
Within three minutes of the troubles starting over the Kaimai Ranges, he had executed the emergency landing on the mudflats at Te Puna Estuary.
"I did a pretty good job, to tell you the truth," he said.
No one else was on board the 10-seater and Mr Ensor's focus was on saving the aircraft, one of three his company uses for charter flights around the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty.
He landed the plane at 9.15am in boggy ground next to mangroves, causing the nose leg to collapse and the right wheel to sink. The nose was also damaged.
Worried residents flooded emergency services with calls, saying they could see the plane losing altitude and had heard the engines cut out.
They watched as the plane lost power and headed for the ground.
Colin Prouse was at his house several kilometres away on Whakamarama hill when it flew overhead.
"It was stopping and starting and missing and spluttering," he said.
"We heard the engines cutting out. He [the pilot] was trying to feather the engines to get them going."
The pilot was "very, very lucky", Mr Prouse said.
Nearer the scene, engineer Mark McGregor and his family were also alarmed.
"We were inside and we heard this plane just above our heads," the 57-year-old said. "The engines were coming on and off. The plane was wavering and losing altitude. We called 111 straight away."
Emergency services were on the scene in minutes and checked Mr Ensor, who was uninjured.
His main concern was salvaging the $250,000 plane, which was built in 1973 but had new engines installed a year ago. "It's my livelihood and the tide's coming in fast."
The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating.
