Parents read of daughter's plane death

The scene of the plane crash at Fox Glacier airfield. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The parents of the German tourist who died in last week's plane crash at Fox Glacier are distraught at finding out about the death of their daughter from a newspaper.

Annika Kirsten, 23, was one of nine people to die in the skydiving plane crash at Fox Glacier on September 4.

Her mother Susanne, speaking to the Herald on Sunday from Reutlingen in Germany, said her husband had been reading news reports about the Christchurch earthquake.

He was relieved no one had been killed - but then was devastated on reading further to discover an aeroplane crash that had killed an unnamed German tourist.

"My husband brought in the newspaper and said 'look, look' at the headline. There was no injured people because of the earthquake but then he said: 'No, no there was a flight and an accident with a German tourist from Reutlingen'."

The couple called the German Embassy in Wellington - which confirmed their only child had died.

Annika had left Germany on August 16 and sent her mother an email from Westport on September 2.

"She said to me that she was really happy because she described the nature. She really liked that part of the world," Susanne said.

Annika was studying geography and had told her mother she was looking forward to seeing the Fox Glacier.

"She had such hard exams here we gave her that trip. At the airport she hesitated because the weather was bad in New Zealand and she wanted some sun but she said 'No I go'. In my eyes I see her leaving us," she said, breaking down.

"And now I am here and I don't have a daughter. Nothing left. My young, blonde, hopeful, wonderful daughter. Why did I give her the trip? I should have forbidden it and now it's too late," she said.

Her father, Werner Schmidt-Kirsten, said Annika had always been adventurous but had never been skydiving before.

"When she was a child with a sledge she wanted the mountain to be steeper or at the swimming pool she wanted the slide to be higher."