KEY POINTS:
A pilot cheated death when he managed to jump clear of his crashed plane just before it burst into flames.
Top dressing pilot Kevin Young's 550hp Walter Fletcher turbine lost power as it was taking off from a sloping hill in Te Uku, east of Raglan, yesterday.
To slow the plane, which was carrying lime, he steered into a fence where the plane caught fire when a fuel tank was ruptured by a strainer post.
About 400 litres of aviation fuel was on board at the time. However, Mr Young managed to jump clear before the plane was engulfed. Hamilton company, Super Air, uses the farm's airstrip to fertilise surrounding farms and the crash occurred as the pilot was setting off on his first run.
The accident happened at Marlene Dickey's 259ha dairy farm at 6.30am.
"Our workers saw the huge crash and boom, one of them called 111 and the cows were ditched," Ms Dickey told the Herald.
"The plane's a write-off and the fence is gone, we've got a big pile of lime in the paddock, but who cares, he's alive."
Constable Jason Kahika said Mr Young had a lucky escape. "The pilot has been taking off down a sloping hill with his aircraft loaded with lime when he's suffered a power loss.
"Faced with dumping his load and trying to continue to fly with what little power he had or aborting the take-off, he's steered the plane towards a fence to try and use it as an arrestor wire like on a carrier."
Mr Kahika said the pilot managed to escape from the plane unscathed, only suffering a small scratch after he got out when he removed the pin from a fire extinguisher.
Members of the Raglan Volunteer Fire Brigade helped bring the fire under control.
Super Air manager Graeme Martin praised Mr Young's actions.
"He's got 15 years - 12,000 hours' flying time. When it all went wrong he knew exactly what to do. He took evasive action, steered the plane to where it wouldn't fall off the airstrip, and he's managed to shut everything down.
"He's a senior training pilot, he made the right calls."
Mr Martin said the pilot did not want to take any time off after the accident. "We've had a chat and he'll be back tomorrow [today]."
Civil Aviation Authority investigator Alan Moselen said the plane's engine had been removed for testing.
"It looks like it suffered uncontained turbine failure, that's all we know at this stage. It may be a while before we find out exactly what went wrong."
He said steering the plane into the fence was the right thing for Mr Young to do.
"He did the right thing, he needed to stop the energy. He couldn't fly with the problem and to the right it was quite steep. He did the best thing possible in the circumstances."
