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Investigators say it could take many months before the cause of yesterday's triple fatality over Paraparaumu is known.
Police today released the names of the three men killed when a helicopter and small plane collided over the Kapiti Coast township, 52km northeast of Wellington.
They were David Mark Fielding, 30, a rescue helicopter pilot, from Palmerston North; James David Taylor, 19, of Waikanae, near Paraparaumu; and Bevan Andrew Hookway, 17, of Raumati South, near Paraparaumu, who was piloting a Cessna 152 light plane.
Mr Taylor, originally from the Nelson Lakes area, was the student pilot of the helicopter, while Mr Fielding, base manager of Palmerston North's Square Trust rescue helicopter, was testing him.
The two craft hit at 11.15am, with some eyewitnesses saying the plane's left wing clipped the helicopter's tail.
The collision was at "significant altitude" and wreckage was spread over a wide area, said Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigator Ian McClelland.
The helicopter, an R22, fell through the roof of Paraparumu's Placemakers store, just missing staff and customers in the store, while the plane fuselage landed about 250m away in Dennis Taylor Court, with its engine crashing through one of the houses in that cul-de-sac.
Mr Fielding and Mr Taylor were killed in the crash, while Mr Hookway was critically injured and died later in Wellington Hospital.
Mr Hookway was a senior student at Kapiti College and was flying a Kapiti Aero Club Cessna. Police said he was undertaking correspondence studies in aviation through the college.
Mr McClelland said it was too early to say what caused the crash, and the present role of the TAIC and police was gathering information and supporting the victims' families.
The investigation could take as long as eight months, he said.
"With the aircraft having some fallen some distance, there was a lot of disintegration...and so reviewing the wreckage and impact marks will take some time.
"We have no survivors from the aircraft - we do have eyewitnesses which is good, but what the aircraft were doing and intending will take some time to work out," he told reporters.
The emphasis at present was on gathering information and from that the analysis of what caused the crash would develop.
The job of investigators would include scene examination, interviewing eyewitnesses and checking with the flight operators on the pilots' records and backgrounds.
Radar tapes, held by Airways Corporation in Christchurch, would be examined. "We will see whether that has picked up any of the aircraft and that will gave us a radar plot," Mr McClelland told NZPA.
The TAIC will also probe operation of the airspace around Paraparumu, while the Civil Aviation Authority said it would look at airspace management. The airport does not have air traffic control and pilots heading near or leaving the airport have to radio their movements.
The Paraparaumu Airport Coalition, set up to oppose the planned development of an industrial estate surrounding the airport, has criticised the fact that such a busy airport does not have an air traffic controller and said yesterday's crash was "an accident waiting to happen".
Kapiti Mana Area Police Commander Inspector John Spence said specialists, including the police disaster victim identification team, worked until nearly 3am today extracting the bodies of the two men from the helicopter wreckage.
Late this afternoon police said the wreckage of the light plane had been removed.
The Placemakers site remained closed today as wreckage was removed the hardware store and surrounds.
Four families in Dennis Taylor Close were evacuated - including the one which had the plane engine land in its hallway.
Mr Spence said it was an horrific crash and police, Victim Support and other agencies were working with the families of the victims.
"Three young lives have been lost tragically. Our condolences very much go out to their immediate families and friends of the three young pilots who have died in clear skies on a beautiful day.
"We have also got to think about the people on the ground, the traumatic incident in Placemakers especially, with customers and staff, and along with the people Dennis Taylor Court.
Counselling assistance was being offered to those people and other witnesses, he said.
Police have interviewed between 50 and 60 witnesses to the crash and its aftermath.
- NZPA
