In a scene straight out of a desert island castaway story, a line scrawled in the beach pointed rescuers to a helicopter crash in the sea near Whangarei today, helping save a pilot's life.

A 23-year-old man has been taken to hospital after being pulled from the sea after his helicopter crashed off the Northland coast. He was the pilot and only occupant of the chopper and escaped with minor injuries.

An air search has started off the Northland coast after reports an aircraft may have crashed into the sea.

Inside the aircraft, passenger Sonu Jaiswal was live streaming the plane's descent seconds before the crash. Video / Supplied / AP

Air NZ pilots helped to avert a midair disaster that air traffic controllers failed to spot, an inquiry has found.

A plane that crashed near Fox Glacier, killing nine, is believed to have been over its maximum allowable weight and off-balance.

Qantas will keep its six A380 superjumbos on the ground for at least the next 72 hours, as testing on their Rolls-Royce engines continues after oil leaks were discovered on three aircraft.

Emergency checks found 'anomalies' on three of the fleet's new Rolls-Royce engines, chief executive Alan Joyce said today.

More questions over engines are likely to cause massive delays for Qantas passengers.

Passengers on a Qantas jet heard a boom and saw fire as one of the plane's engines exploded in mid-air.

Two occupants of a plane which crashed near Ohakune this morning have survived unscathed.

A widow wants pilots to stay away from a helicopter involved in 30 crashes in six years in which nine people have died, including two this month.

Two people were hurt when a light plane crashed into a sewage pond at the end of a runway at Thames Aerodrome this morning.

The wreck of the helicopter that crashed, killing two people on Thursday, has been recovered from Bluff Harbour.

A helicopter has crashed on the Banks Peninsula, less than 24 hours after two hunters walked away from a crash in Fiordland.