Mt Egmont plane crash bodies recovered

Search teams have removed the bodies of two men who died in a plane crash on Mt Taranaki last week.

The team spent several hours yesterday digging snow and ice away from the wreckage of the Piper Seneca, which crashed into the mountain just below the summit last Tuesday.

At dawn today, an air force helicopter flew searchers back to the summit, where they found the bodies of Wayne Phillip Stratford, 41, and his passenger John Colin Hoskin, 63, both of Nelson.

The team had to work quickly because bad weather was forecast to close in on the summit about midday, New Plymouth police area controller Inspector Anne Knox said in a statement today.

The bodies were retrieved in quick succession and flown by helicopter down the mountain, then transported to New Plymouth about 1pm.

Police aborted an attempt to recover the bodies on Saturday because of bad weather.

- NZPA