Near miss ends in airport crash

Two people escaped from a vintage plane after it nose dived at Tauranga Airport yesterday. Photo / George Novak

An apparent near-miss with another plane ended up with a Tiger Moth aircraft landing on its nose.

Two people in a yellow Tiger Moth escaped the plane without injury at Tauranga Airport yesterday afternoon.

Witnesses waiting at Tauranga Airport described a near-miss between two vintage planes, one red and one yellow.

Tauranga local Tom Ross saw the whole event unfold in front of him while sitting outside the airport.

"The yellow one was trying to avoid the red one that was already on the ground. There was a squeal of tyres, smoke came off, the yellow plane tipped on it's portside wing, just about slipped over, then came back again. Then the propeller hit the ground and broke a piece off, which made the engine roar."

Mr Ross said the plane came to a stop balanced on its nose, then both of the people inside the plane "hopped out".

Tauranga local Jane Lawson said the two planes landed close to one another. "The red one came in slowly and was turning across the runway when the other one came in, avoided the red one, did a twirl around, touching the wing on the ground and then nose dived."

A group of women from Canterbury were waiting for a plane inside the airport when the incident unfolded. The women's plane was delayed an hour.

Tauranga City Council communications manager Aimee Driscoll said the aircraft had "difficulty landing" just before 3pm and suffered minor damage.

There were no injuries to the two people on board and Air New Zealand services were only disrupted for five minutes, she said.

The aircraft suffered a broken propeller.

The Civil Aviation Authority would determine whether an investigation needed to be carried out.

Kevin Cowper, Tauranga Fire Brigade senior station officer, said the crew was called to a light plane crash at Tauranga Airport.

"When we arrived there, there was a vintage plane that hadn't necessarily crash landed but was taxiing off the grass runway and the front nose dived into the ground.

"The people were able to get themselves out of the plane and there was very little damage to the plane. The people in the plane were all right."

Mr Cowper said the fire brigade was on stand-by until the plane was righted back to a level position. "There was a minor fuel leak, but that was taken care of when the plane was righted."