Families who lost loved ones in NZ's worst air crash nearly 31 years ago have been asked to register for a ballot for 80 seats on a RNZAF commemorative flight to Antarctica.

A helicopter pilot was sending and receiving text messages in the minutes prior to being killed in a crash, a report says.

The Govt will fly up to 80 relatives of the victims of the Mt Erebus crash to Antarctica, Murray McCully has announced

A video game may have helped a pilot put his damaged aircraft down safely after a mid-air collision that killed two others.

An international flying student did an "exceptional job" landing unhurt with a dead engine and missing a wheel after a fatal mid-air collision.

The student pilot who died after a mid-air collision with another plane in Feilding yesterday has been named.

The student pilot killed in yesterday's flight school crash was in her 60s and from the Kapiti Coast area, police said this morning.

One plane landed safely after a mid-air collision in Feilding this afternoon, while the other crashed, killing the flying instructor and student occupants.

The flying instructor badly injured in Monday's plane crash near Palmerston North has shown promising signs of recovery.

The flying instructor who survived an air crash has had surgery for bleeding to his brain but doctors hope to bring him out of a coma today.

Two men were lucky to survive an air crash that left their plane balanced precariously on the side of a cliff during a delicate three-hour rescue.

Two men are "pretty banged up" after their plane crashed in the Ruahine Ranges this afternoon.