Plane flips but pilot 'calm' after crash

Plane flips on landing

Fairfax NZ

ROUGH LANDING: A light plane from the air force's Red Checkers aerobatics team lies upside down after a forced landing near the Desert Road.

A Red Checkers pilot who made a forced landing in his aircraft metres from the Desert Road was walking around "quite calm" when emergency services arrived.

The pilot was flying the light plane from Ohakea Air Base in Manawatu with the Red Checkers aerobatic team when he made a forced landing due to a mechanical problem at about 4.20pm yesterday, a Defence Force spokesman said.

The aircraft flipped over and was damaged on landing, but the pilot was not injured, he said.

Turangi deputy chief fire officer Michelle Sherwood said two fire trucks and a support van from Turangi attended the incident, about 25 kilometres south of Turangi.

The aircraft had landed about 100m from the Desert Road, in a tussock-covered area.

The pilot was walking around when the fire service arrived, and "was quite calm", she said.

"He got out and was 100 per cent fine. The poor pilot said, `It looked a lot better than that from 1000 feet [up]'."

The Red Checkers were on their way to Tauranga for a display at the Tauranga air show this weekend. The display has since been cancelled.

An investigation will be held into the incident.

In January 2010, Red Checkers aerobatic pilot Squadron Leader Nick Cree, 32, died after crashing near the Raumai weapons range, west of Bulls, while training.

In March the same year, the five-aircraft display team was grounded again when the canopy of one plane clipped the wheels of another as they were moving between formations. Six air show displays had to be cancelled.

In November last year, an air force court of inquiry found a lack of training and peer review meant Mr Cree used an unsafe technique for the fishtail pass move he was performing when he crashed.

Air Vice-Marshal Peter Stockwell said new procedures had been introduced as a result.

- © Fairfax NZ News