Pilot dies of floatplane crash injuries

The wreckage of the Seawind is recovered from Lake Taupo today.

Pilot John Borman, whose self-built Seawind amphibious aircraft crashed into Lake Taupo on Sunday, has died of his injuries. The retired Tauranga man spent 7000 hours constructing the kitset plane and countless more flying it.

Yesterday the 60-year-old died in Waikato Hospital with his family at his bedside.

Almost every weekend Mr Borman and his wife, Noeleen, went for a jaunt somewhere, landing on sealed or grassed strips or on water.

On Saturday they were in Dargaville for lunch with a group of other Tauranga recreational plane owners.

But the next day, after a pleasant Sunday picnicking with friends on the shores of Lake Taupo, the Bormans failed to take off as scheduled for the journey home.

The four-seater Seawind with the couple on board apparently hit the wash of a passing launch and somersaulted about 1km from shore at Two Mile Bay around 8pm.

Mrs Borman, 57, suffered facial injuries and spent Sunday night in Taupo Hospital concussed and shocked, before joining other family members at Waikato Hospital.

Tauranga Aero Club president John Brunskill said Mr Borman was a popular man who was a life member of the Tauranga Gliding Club, where he was an instructor.

A New Zealand representative in fixed-wing formation flying, he had wanted to use his amphibian as much as possible this summer.

The high-performance Seawind was one of only two in New Zealand and Mr Borman helped build the second, now based in Wellington.

Widely respected in aviation circles, he had flown throughout the country and in the United States. His record included more than 200 water landings.

Trevor Parker, among the friends still on the shores of Lake Taupo when the Bormans left, watched with growing concern and then helplessness as the Seawind failed to lift off the water.

"It just didn't want to unstick. For some reason it wouldn't go through that transition."

Generally the aircraft could handle a boat's wash but it was possible a density altitude problem contributed this time, Mr Parker said.

With Taupo's height above sea level combined with Sunday's high temperatures, the aircraft needed extra power to take off.

Rescue services were quickly on the scene after the Seawind flipped.

A Civil Aviation Authority inspector was on hand as Mr Parker helped salvage the plane yesterday for trucking back to its Tauranga Airport hangar. The canopy had exploded on impact and one wing was broken but the fuselage was intact.

Another friend said the $400,000 aircraft was not insured.

- additional reporting: NZPA