By SCOTT MACLEOD transport reporter
It was a beautiful day to ditch an aeroplane.
The waters of the Marlborough Sounds were as still as a millpond yesterday when the Fatman fertiliser plane piloted by Jeff Bishop droned across Titirangi Bay, its engine burping and whining in obvious distress.
Farmer Debbie Moleta and her three children watched as Mr Bishop quickly dumped a full load of rock phosphate in a bid to lose weight and stay airborne.
Mr Bishop, who had just taken off from the Moletas' private airstrip on Waitui Farm, was obviously aiming for the private airstrip next door, but he failed. Instead, Mrs Moleta heard the engine cut out, then a sharp bang as the plane hit those glassy-smooth waters of the bay, on the northern Cook Strait coastline of the Sounds.
Mrs Moleta immediately rang the WestpacTrust rescue helicopter, but Mr Bishop had suffered barely a scratch.
He jumped from the wing of his Patchett AG Air plane and swam 50m to the shore.
He told residents that his propeller had struck the ground as his plane lifted from the Moletas' airstrip.
Ray Patchett, son of the plane's co-owner Ray Patchett, said Mr Bishop was home in Blenheim last night: "No injuries. He's fine."
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