Divers seek answers to Air NZ crash

Reuters

GRAVE MARKER: The tail section of the Air New Zealand Airbus A320 airliner is seen above water in the Mediterranean Sea off France's southwest coast.

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Specialist divers were last night searching for missing bodies and mangled wreckage in a bid to answer why an Air New Zealand aircraft plunged into the sea, killing seven crew.

Five Kiwis and two German pilots were on the Air New Zealand Airbus A320 when it crashed into the Mediterranean, off Perpignan in southeast France, at 4.45am NZ time yesterday.

An amateur radio enthusiast described hearing the pilot's final words before the jet nosedived into the ocean.

"The pilot read [control tower instructions] back and this is the last time we heard the pilot," the French radio ham wrote on an aviation website. "Not a single mayday, nothing."

The pilot of a nearby PA28 Piper Warrior then shouted: "An aircraft crashing. An aircraft crashing."

The Airbus had been on a test flight after maintenance ahead of its return to New Zealand from a two-year lease by German charter firm, XL Airways.

The French daily Le Monde reported that three bodies had been recovered.

The plane was still visible in about 40 metres of freezing water several kilometres off the French coast. About 60 divers went down to the aircraft last night to search for the remaining bodies and the "black box" flight recorders, which could provide crucial clues as to why the flight went down.

A French minesweeper had joined the search, which was hampered by two-metre swells and 20-30 knot winds.

The plane was seen flying low shortly before the crash, which came on the 29th anniversary of New Zealand's worst air disaster, when an Air New Zealand DC10 crashed into Mt Erebus, killing all 257 passengers and crew.

"The plane was flying ... and suddenly fell down into the sea," a French journalist said.

The aircraft was being flown by the German pilots, with Air New Zealand's Brian Horrell sitting behind them.

Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe said the five Kiwis were observing as part of the acceptance process before the four-year-old jet was handed back.

"There's no indications that there were any concerns of the flight, or the operation of the flight, prior to the accident occurring." Mr Fyfe believed the aircraft was about eight kilometres out when it got into trouble. "It would have had some height, but certainly well below a minimum cruising altitude."

He and members of at least one bereaved family were flying to France last night.

Prime Minister John Key said the crash was a "great tragedy".

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation executive chairman Peter Harbison doubted that Air New Zealand's brand would suffer significantly. The aircraft was not on a scheduled commercial flight, nor was it being flown by Air New Zealand pilots, he said.