Northland news in brief: Plane alert ends safely, Lotto winners

A Sunair plane landed safely at Whangārei Airport on Friday afternoon after the pilot rang ahead to say he was having issues with the plane’s landing gear.

Plane alert ends safely

The pilot of a plane that contacted Whangārei Airport on Friday with potential problems with its landing gear got the issue sorted and the plane landed safely.

Police said they were alerted to reports of a plane asking for local emergency services to stand by at the Onerahi airport around 4.30pm on Friday. The plane landed safely around 4.35pm and police were not required. No one was injured.

Whangārei Airport manager Mike Chubb said the pilot of the six-seater Sunair plane called ahead to say he was having issues with the landing gear.

The airport’s protocol kicked into place and police and other emergency services were called to the scene as a precaution.

However, Chubb said, the pilot managed to solve the issue and the plane landed safely.

No injuries as vehicle hits pole

Nobody was injured when a vehicle carrying a woman and child crashed into a streetlight on State Highway 1 in Whangārei on Sunday.

The black people-mover, which was heading south on the highway, left the road and hit the streetlight at Mander Park about 1.15pm on Sunday.

Both the driver-side and passenger-side airbags deployed, but police said no injuries were reported.

Police said there were two female occupants in the vehicle, one a child.

A people-mover crashed into a streetlight on SH1 at Mander Park in Whangārei about 1.15pm on Sunday. No injuries were reported. Photo / Mike Dinsdale

Two Lotto winners

Two tickets sold in Northland were among 17 that each won more than $19,000 in Lotto’s Second Division draw on Saturday.

The tickets - one sold via MyLotto in Northland and the other at Dargaville Postshop and Lotto - each won $19,139.

The winning Lotto numbers were 3, 4, 12, 22, 24 and 25, with the bonus number 10 and Powerball number 9. The Strike numbers were 22, 3, 25 and 24.

Powerball was not struck on Saturday and will be worth $17 million on Wednesday.

Sunday Jazz Session

The Tauraroa Area Jazz Band and Boys’ High School Jazz Band are the next to perform at the Northern Jazz Society’s Sunday Jazz Session.

The two school bands will be at Flames Hotel in Onerahi from 2pm on August 6.

For more details, go to northernjazzsociety.co.nz.

Correction

In our story on Friday about Northlanders moving to Australia, the figures provided by Stats NZ were incorrect. They do not currently have any exact numbers.