Air Fiordland will resume flights today, two days after one of the company's planes slammed into mountains in Fiordland, killing all six people aboard.
The plane, a single-engine Cessna 207 with two New Zealanders and four tourists aboard, crashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound about 10am on Saturday.
The engine ripped
free on impact and careered forward over the edge of a sheer cliff into a lake.
The incident happened about 60m below the ridgeline on the Gertrude Saddle, north of the Homer Tunnel at the head of the Hollyford Valley.
Police said they had questioned everyone believed to be in the area at the time of the crash and it appeared there were no witnesses to the accident.
Air Fiordland chief executive Russell Baker said this morning that flight operations would resume today "because we've got to carry on".
He was confident that the company's fleet of fixed-wing aircraft were safe, and pilot training exemplary.
"No matter what you do in life you've got to have your wits about you, because it's always there ready to leap up and bite you," he told National Radio.
"But, the training that goes with any company operating in this region is extensive to the point that our people go in there knowing what they're doing and how to go about it."
Pilots in the company were shocked and stunned by their colleague's death but wanted to return to the air, he said.
"We ceased operations on Saturday to make sure there was nothing wrong. Every plane has been taken back to Te Anau and checked out ... we've had an air fitness assessment of flight staff and they're keen to get back to work."
Police yesterday named the six people who were on a scenic flight at the time of the crash.
The pilot Andrew David Robins, 25, of Queenstown, and his five passengers died in the impact. The passengers were Gordon Ross, 34, and his wife Angela, 29, of Scotland; Canadian couple George Edward and Marilynn Marie Hunter, 65 and 64 respectively; and former Invercargill man Wayde Clarke, 21.
- NZPA
