Pilot killed in Ureweras crash named

Police have named the aviation instructor who died after the plane she was flying crashed during a routine training flight.

She was Aleisha O'Reilly, 21, from Tauranga.

An operation is under way in Te Urewera National Park to recover Ms O'Reilly's body.

Ms O'Reilly was co-piloting the Cessna 152 with Chris Slee, a 19-year-old student from Mt Maunganui, when it crashed into a gully near Ruatahuna, north west of Lake Waikaremoana in the Urewera National Park, about 5pm yesterday.

Mr Slee pulled Ms O'Reilly's body from the plane before setting off into the dense bush for help.

Two St John advanced paramedics were lowered to the wreckage to check on the instructor but found she was dead.

Ms O'Reilly and Mr Slee were from the Bay Flight International flying school in Tauranga. The company's general manager Laurence Barnett said Ms O'Reilly had been flying for four years and had logged 500 hours in the air.

"She was popular and bubbly and nothing was too much trouble," he said.

Mr Slee was last night being treated for injuries to his face, arm and ankle, and a possible broken rib.

The plane left Tauranga about 1.30pm on a two-hour flight over Whakatane and Lake Waikaremoana and was about half an hour away from landing back in Tauranga.

Rotorua police search and rescue squad members, with the Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter, are at the site of the crash, working to bring Ms O'Reilly's body out.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be investigating the crash.

- NZPA