The fatal plane crash
yesterday in Canterbury was witnessed by glider pilot John McCaw, uncle
of All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.
Mr. McCaw was at the glider
club when the Piper PA-28-236 Dakota aircraft crashed near Springfield,
killing pilot Martin Lowen, 55.
He said he was "not in the headspace'' to talk about the crash today.
"I'm just sort of feeling the effects of today,'' he said.
"I'm quite upset about it. It's not something you'd want to witness.''
His wife Jill posted on her Facebook page that she had been speaking to her husband on the phone when he saw the plane crash.
"John
was there and on the phone to me at the time. He and others raced
through gorse and shrubbery to try and get to the site and help the
pilot, to no avail - as the aircraft was exploding in flames.''
The McCaw family are heavily involved in gliding, and the couple's two sons are also pilots.
Richie McCaw has spoken about his family's long involvement with the sport, with his father and two uncles also flying gliders.
Fire melted the fuselage of the plane, slowing the work of safety investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
CAA
spokesman Mike Richards said three investigators were at the scene, but
it was too early to say what may have caused the accident.
"There
are many many hours of painstaking work sifting through the ash from
the wreckage to see if there are any clues that may explain what
happened,'' Mr Richards said.
"Our investigators have found it
particularly challenging as the fire from the impact has even melted the
aluminum fuselage of the aircraft.''
The light plane had been towing a glider with two people on board, which was able to release from the tow and land safely.
Mr
Richards said the engine of the plane was mostly intact, and was likely
to be sent to a specialist firm in Dunedin to be stripped back to
search for a mechanical cause of the accident.
"The team are now
taking a detailed photographic record of the site and surrounding area
and will also review police photographs and pictures taken by an
off-duty TAIC investigator who was in the area yesterday.
"The next step will be interviewing eyewitnesses. The glider that was being towed by the Piper PA-28-236 Dakota got away safely with both a pilot and instructor on board so they will be important witnesses to this tragic accident.''
Mr.
Richards said that due to the severe fire and the need for outside
technical experts, it may be up to 12 months before the results of the
investigation are known.
"However if the CAA identifies anything
obvious that may have caused the accident it will alert the aviation
community with the utmost urgency.
"Our goal is to learn what can from this accident and help prevent something similar happening again.''
The CAA said no update was yet available on the investigation into a second fatal aviation accident yesterday.
A
glider crashed on a property near the Auckland Gliding Club airfield in
Drury, South Auckland, killing the sole occupant on board.
The glider came down on a neighboring property to Franklin Local Board chairman Andy Baker's home.
Mr.
Baker said he didn't see the crash but saw the glider's shadow pass
over. "My son saw the shadow and said `gee, that glider was close to the
house','' he said.
He was alerted to the incident when phoned by
a neighbor, and found police and ambulance officers already on the
scene when he went to investigate.
Mr. Baker said the crash was traumatic for the teenagers who were among the first on the scene.
"There were a lot of young kids around, a lot of teenagers around down there,'' he said.
"It was pretty traumatic for them.''
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
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