Glider crash victim named

The glider pilot who died when his aircraft crashed south of Blenheim was Michael Dekker, 55, from Blenheim.

He was killed in an attempt at a long-distance cross country flight.

Constable Bill Talbot of the Blenheim Police search and rescue team said Mr Dekker, who was an experienced glider pilot, left Omaka Airfield near Blenheim yesterday morning with the intention of flying south over the Molesworth to Lake Coleridge near Mt Hutt and returning to Blenheim via St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes region.

Mr Talbot said the trip was scheduled to have taken about 12 hours.

Just before midnight last night a tow pilot noticed the glider had not returned and raised the alarm.

The wreckage was found early this morning about seven kilometres south of Blenheim on Orchard Spur near the Taylor Pass area.

St John Nelson operations team manager Blair Andrews said the Nelson-based Summit Rescue Helicopter responded just after 1am this morning. An advanced paramedic was winched down to the scene, and found the single occupant of the aircraft was deceased.

Mr Talbot said the cause of the crash was unknown. The Civil Aviation Authority would begin an investigation today.

Nelson Lakes Gliding Club veteran pilot Ivan Evans, who knew Mr Dekker, understood the accident occurred early on in the flight.

"He has flown out of the area hundreds of times. He's a very highly skilled pilot so what's happened is a total mystery. He wasn't trying to do something he'd not done before.

"Someone with his skill makes me wonder about perhaps something went wrong with the glider," Mr Evans said. 

HANG GLIDER PILOT DIES

Yesterday a novice pilot died when his glider crashed south west of Auckland.

Shocked witnesses were unable to revive a novice hang glider pilot after he lost control and crashed into a cliff at Karioitahi Beach.

Bradley Mark Cameron, 39, of Remuera in Auckland, had recently qualified as a hang glider pilot and was flying work friends from the cliff top at Karioitahi about 3pm yesterday, said police.

Constable Lorraine Borrell from Waiuku police said his friends helped him launch his glider.

"He flew for approximately four minutes quite normally then he lost altitude and turned into towards the cliff face. The witness said he didn't even try to turn out of it. He just went into the cliff face and crashed into the rocks."

Mr Cameron was alive but unconscious when his friends reached him but they could not get him out of his harness because he was suspended between two rock faces.

"They knew they had to get him out but they couldn't so they had to wait until surf rescue staff came up. They lifted him out of the harness eventually and did CPR but no success."

The cause of the accident was being investigated.

Mr Cameron was wearing a helmet but took most of the impact of the crash on his chest and died soon after resuscitation efforts began.

- with NZPA

"Someone with his skill makes me wonder about perhaps something went wrong with the glider," Mr Evans said.

- © Fairfax NZ News