A small privately-owned twin-engine airplane was forced to make an emergency landing at Tauranga Airport this morning after its engine caught fire while flying over Waihi. The Twin Star plane, with an instructor and two students on board, landed in Tauranga just before 9am. Tauranga Airport staff said the pilot radioed into say he would be landing at Tauranga Airport with one engine on fire. The pilot shut down the damaged engine and continued operating off the remaining engine. In order to land safely he had to make manual adjustments to the propeller and engine settings. Airport manager Ray Dumble said landing on one engine was something pilots did extensive training for but did not often have to cope with. He could not recall the last time such an incident had happened in Tauranga. He watched the landing and said "they did a very good job ... They seemed to be right as rain." There was little sign of the engine fire as the plane came in, witnesses said. The plane was understood to not have suffered any major damage and those on board were uninjured. A local stand-by response was ordered at Tauranga Airport with fire, ambulance and police all attending the emergency landing, which ended safely with the plane sitting off the side of the runway. Last month a pilot was forced to make an emergency landing on Omanu Golf Course after the engine in his Yak 52 plane failed while he was coming in to land.
