A plane comes to a halt with its nose grounded on the Hawke's Bay Airport runway. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
A plane comes to a halt with its nose grounded on the Hawke's Bay Airport runway. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
A light plane with damaged landing gear has safely landed at Hawke’s Bay Airport after drama in mid-air prompted an emergency response.
Police were alerted to an Air Hawke’s Bay plane flying around Napier Airport with damaged landing gear at 10.06am on Tuesday.
The plane managed to land “safely”at 10.17am, a police spokeswoman said.
A police spokesperson said the plane’s nose landing gear had been damaged.
Photos from the scene showed the plane’s nose facing towards, but not touching, the tarmac. There did not appear to be damage to the bodywork of the plane.
The plane sits at Hawke's Bay Airport, with landing gear damage visible after being towed. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Hawke’s Bay Airport chief executive Nick Flack said the plane’s two occupants were checked over by ambulance staff and cleared of injury.
Flack said the airport’s fire brigade had done a great job and the runway was clear.
A witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw the landing from the airport’s terminal building and thought it was simply a “rough landing” - with the aircraft appearing to take a slight bounce after touching the runway.
He said, like most others in the airport, he was unaware it was an emergency landing and didn’t pay any further attention until he saw the fire truck out on the runway.
Several flights in and out of Hawke’s Bay Airport on Tuesday were disrupted. One morning flight to Auckland and one incoming flight from Wellington were cancelled.
The plane was removed from the runway just after 11am.
A damaged light plane is removed from the Hawke's Bay Airport runway after landing with broken landing gear. Photos / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
A Hato Hone St John spokesperson said they were notified at 10.06am.
“Two ambulances and one helicopter responded, but we have since been stood down.”
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said Hawke’s Bay Airport had called its crews to the incident.
There had been no fire, but firefighters had helped clean a fuel spill and were leaving as at 10.34am, she said.
