Body of NZ pilot expected back soon

The body of New Zealand pilot Dougal Williamson is expected to be flown home during the next few days after his death in a mystery plane crash in Namibia.

Willie Blizzard, the airborne operations manager of the Perth-based GPX company which hired Williamson to do aerial prospecting for minerals, said he had sent a team to help Namibian authorities investigate and expected Williamson's body to be flown to New Zealand this week.

Earlier, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials in New Zealand had said an autopsy would have to be performed before the body could be sent home.

Williamson, aged in his late 30s, was flying a Cessna 210 when it crashed 80km southwest of Namibia's capital, Windhoek, on October 20. Also killed was co-pilot Ian Payne, 38, of Perth, Australia.

Williamson had only recently arrived in Namibia to do aerial geological surveys for GPX.

He had previously lived close to family members in Queensland. Williamson worked in northern Australia and Queensland before recently moving to Perth.

He was a carpenter before he began his flying career in the Northern Territory as a pilot with Hardy Aviation in 2002. He had 4000 hours' flying time.

Hardy Aviation managing director John Hardy this week said Williamson had been well-liked by his mates "and was a good bloke who was always up for a chat".

The aircraft took off from Windhoek's Eros Airport to carry out an aerial survey and crashed 30 minutes later in an area known as Farm Goellschau.

Farm workers told local media how they saw a plume of thick black smoke on the horizon and drove to the area to discover the burning wreckage.

GPX's airborne division offers fixed-wing and helicopter-borne geophysics and remote sensing to mining, oil and environmental industries and Government agencies.

Pat Cunneen, managing director of GPX Airborne, said both men were highly experienced flyers and very professional, and the reasons for the crash were still a mystery.

The plane belonged to a local air charter company and was carrying out an aerial geological survey for the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy, Mr Cunneen said.

Weather conditions were said to have been ideal.

"Dougal had been with the company for only three months but we were very happy with how he was progressing," Mr Cunneen said.

"He was up to speed on our survey techniques and the next time he went up he would have been flying the aircraft by himself."

Parts of the aircraft have been sent to South Africa to be tested for defects.

- NZPA