Foul play not ruled out in plane crash

Investigators today have not ruled out foul play as a cause of the light plane crash on a routine cannabis reconnaissance flight near Queenstown.

Detective Travis Hughes, 37, from Queenstown, and Bay of Plenty pilot Chris Scott, 33, died when the light aircraft they were in hit a hillside in the Gibbston Valley east of Queenstown soon after midday on Saturday.

Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) chief accident investigator John Mockett said foul play had not been ruled out, but neither had any evidence yet been found.

"Should there be any evidence of foul play it will become apparent ... we are not specifically looking for that,'' he told National Radio.

Meanwhile, police have stopped cannabis reconnaissance flights. Police acting deputy commissioner of operations Jon White said Mr Scott's company was contracted by New Zealand police to provide flights for the cannabis programme nationally.

"The programme has been put on hold because of Saturday's crash.''

Mr Scott had flown in the Queenstown area before. The work involved low-level flying, following up on leads from members of the public to help locate cannabis plots.

Mr White said reconnaissance flights were dangerous and the planes often flew near fiercely protected plantations.

"We are dealing with people who have access to firearms, traps and stolen property. In recent years there have even been some methamphetamine labs found at the same site as the plantations. They are places that we must approach with caution.''

In the past police had been confronted by gin traps, trip wires, electric fencing units and cyanide at plantations around New Zealand.

Police Minister George Hawkins yesterday expressed his sympathy to police and the families of the dead pilots -- both were married and had three children each.

He said the continuing struggle against drugs, and cannabis in particular, sometimes exacted a cruel price.

- NZPA