A microlight plane crashed during take off late this morning, injuring both pilot and passenger at the Waikato Microlight Club. Photo / Christine Cornege
Two men were lucky to escape with just moderate injuries after their microlight aircraft stalled and crashed on take off at an airfield, south west of Hamilton shortly before midday today.
The passenger, an 18-year-old Hamilton man, and the 31-year-old pilot from Taupiri were on a scenic flight when the
plane crashed shortly after take off from the Waikato Microlight Club.
Emergency services were called to the scene at the private airfield on Collins Rd about 11.40am.
The club's chief flying officer, Jan Reekers, said he watched the microlight get airborne but then crash to the ground almost straight away.
He rushed to the scene and the pilot got out of the aircraft complaining of a sore back. The injured passenger, from Hamilton, was still sitting in the cockpit.
"He just couldn't feel his legs so we just kept him calm and switched off the fuel and electronics," Mr Reekers said.
"I rang 111 and we started to dismantle the plane to get it ready for getting him out."
The two men had to be cut free of the aircraft's wreckage by fire-fighters before being taken to Waikato Hospital.
They are both currently undergoing assessment, and the passenger had been transferred to a ward, Waikato Hospital spokeswoman Amy Thomsen said.
The Civil Aviation Authority has been advised of the crash.
- NZPA
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