The pilot involved in the Melbourne air crash was under investigation for a previous incident that had been deferred three times due to "workload".

It may be wondered whether a country of NZ's size and population is well served by such a fragmented civil defence organisation.

Police have named the man who died in a car crash on State Highway 3 north of New Plymouth yesterday.

Plane buffs are devastated after bad weather forced the cancellation of Wings Over Wairarapa, but none more so than the organisers.

One person has died, and a number of others are injured, after a mini-van rolled south of Spring Creek in the Marlborough District this afternoon.

One person died while another was airlifted to hospital after a two-car crash on State Highway 3, Awakino.

Fire cordons in Port Hills are being lifted, to give people a few hours' access to their homes.

Three people have died in a horror incident on a New South Wales farm which police have described as a "tragic set of devastating occurrences".

Three people have died in a water tank on a New South Wales farm in Australia.

Port Hills fire updates: Amazing images show the extent of the damage from the air, and just how close it came to some properties.

A tree surgeon died in a London backyard after a his chainsaw apparently 'kicked back' into his neck.

Four homes were evacuated, but residents have since returned to their homes.

New Zealand is now experiencing the worst of the fire season, a top officer says, with a dangerous combination of high temperatures and low relative humidity creating tinder-dry conditions across eastern hot-spots.

At least four people have been killed in an avalanche in the ski resort of Tignes, in the French Alps.

A woman who survived a crash into Lake Wakatipu was initially trapped in her vehicle, police say.

Nobody appears to have been injured in a one-car crash near Twizel this afternoon.

The man who spent two hours trapped in a dam by an excavator has described how he survived in an emotional interview on the Today show.

EXCLUSIVE: Shelley Crooks has broken her silence on her miracle, six-week survival in the rugged West Coast bush.

An ambulance and rescue helicopter are on their way to the isolated scene.

The woman killed in a head-on collision on a rural Auckland road was found by her best friend, who sat with her for hours until her body could be removed.

Power is back on in hundreds of homes around the Auckland region after widespread outages overnight.

Mercury Energy is reviewing its procedures to see if it can improve safety after a woman was swept to her death by the surging waters of the Waikato River.

A dodgy escape route chosen by two bicycle thieves ended up with one of them and a police officer being rescued from a cliff face in Wellington.

The teenager who drowned after he was swept into the flooded Hutt River on Thursday was trying to rescue his friend.

Four people have been injured, one seriously, in a crash south-east of Auckland this afternoon.

Road remains closed after Karapiro crash that killed two.

A person has died after a truck crash near Christchurch.

The search for a missing young Auckland woman is now focused on an area of forest near Muriwai Beach.

A man has died in one of two serious truck crashes that have closed roads in Timaru and Taranaki this morning.

Emergency services were called to the crash at the intersection of Lenore and Gadsby roads in Favona about 9.20pm.