KEY POINTS:
Air crash investigators say there should be no trouble finding out if the engine on a home-built plane was still running when it hit the ground at Auckland's Whenuapai air base on Saturday.
The plane's owner-pilot Wayne Matthews, 62, and passenger Brent Baldwin, 46, died instantly when the Thorp S-18 plunged out of the sky about 4.30pm, narrowly missing liquid oxygen storage tanks.
Civil Aviation Authority crash inspectors have recovered the engine and other items from the wreckage in the past two days and the rest of the wreckage was expected to be removed yesterday.
CAA spokesman Bill Sommer, a close friend of Mr Matthews, said the result of the investigation could be nine months to a year away.
He said crash investigator Alan Moselen had finished his technical inspection of the site.
He said the engine and other debris would be checked and it would be easy to establish if the engine was running when it hit the ground, by looking at the propeller tips.
"If the prop tips are pulled forward it means the engine was still turning.
"They will be able to tell all those things. They can tell if lights were working. It gets into a forensic investigation."
Mr Sommer said investigators were also talking to witnesses who saw the aircraft bank sharply soon after it took off, and hit the ground.
He said Mr Matthews was a fastidious man and did not look for short cuts.
"He was absolutely immaculate with anything he tried. He was a very straight forward, dead honest, forthright person."
His funeral service would be held at the Whenuapai Aviation Sports Club at the Whenuapai air base tomorrow.
His death notice, published in the Herald, included verse by World War II Spitfire pilot John Magee:
"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings."
- NZPA
