Auckland pilot killed in crash named

Police have named a middle-aged Auckland man, who died when his single-engine stunt plane crashed in a Taranaki field yesterday.

The body of Colin David Greatrex, 52, was found next to his crashed bi-plane in a field 8km north of Stratford yesterday afternoon.

The solo flier was piloting the privately-owned aircraft through the Stratford Gap on his way from Ohakea to Ardmore when it disappeared from the radar.

Mr Greatrex was the third person to die in a fatal air crash in Taranaki in less than a week.

On Thursday Neville Ronald Adlam, 70, of New Plymouth, and Stephen John Chubb, 51, of Okaiawa, south Taranaki, died when their gyrocopter ploughed into a paddock.

Mr Chubb was an instructor and was giving tuition to Mr Adlam at the time.

- NZPA