An Australian skydiving instructor with a fear of flying was one of those killed in one of NZ's worst aviation disasters in 17 years.

Three people are dead following a collision between a car and a ute in the Waikato tonight.

Police say the child, thought to be aged about two years, was hit by a vehicle in Otara at about 1.20pm.

A father accused of killing his son, after allegedly driving his car into the path of a train, displayed appalling driving before the "entirely preventable" incident, a jury was told today.

On a pool table at a Fox Glacier pub, a variety of drinks were arranged alongside the words "RIP Boys", as locals remembered their friends killed in Saturday's plane crash.

Members of the public found a toddler, aged 20 months, floating in a pond in Nelson's Queens Gardens this morning.

The sister of the Kiwi sole survivor of Tuesday's plane crash in PNG says she felt "utter disbelief" when she heard he was alive.

The New Zealand man who was the only survivor of a plane crash in Papua New Guinea in which four died has been named.

A mid-air explosion forced a Qantas' 747 jetliner carrying 230 people to make an emergency landing.