A woman enjoying Christmas morning on a deck near the Pāuanui runway says she froze as she watched a plane taking off clip a fence before it was sent spinning into the path of homes.
Sarah Murchison had “popped some prosecco” for Christmas on her home’s deck across from the runway when the plane took off before crashing with a “huge bang”.
Her family had been watching it start to veer left as it launched down the runway.
Its left wing appeared to clip a fence separating the golf course and runway, sending the plane into a 180-degree spin, she said.
Out of control, its momentum carried it through a clump of bushes and the plane slammed into the corner of an Oceanair Drive home.
The impact punched a wooden support beam from the veranda into the air and on to a neighbouring home’s roof, Murchison said.
The plane pulled up metres from neighbouring houses, some filled with children.
Murchison had been “frozen” watching the crash take place, but then she called 111 and raced across the airfield to help.
By the time they reached the property, the house windows “were slowly cracking and smashing”.
A man and woman in the plane were able to get themselves on to the wing and “walk out”, although the woman seemed in a “worse condition”.
They were disorientated and appeared not to realise they were pointing in the direction they had come from, Murchison said.
For Murchison, it had been a wild start to Christmas Day, her family having just “popped some prosecco” on the deck and getting ready to pour mimosas as the drama unfolded.
Yet the timing also was “crazy” lucky, she said.
People had been in the house that got hit just days before, while a neighbouring home’s living room was “full with another family”.
Being Christmas morning, many were still inside with their families, she said.
“Any other day in summer, even tomorrow, there’ll be people walking down the sides of the airfield, going to golf, going to the beach,” she said.
The family of those in the plane were also at the airfield.
“They all had been watching it, unfortunately, and they were running over also, which is very sad,” Murchison said.
A Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said the light aircraft crashed during take-off.
The CAA will investigate to understand what occurred and why, and determine whether any further action is required, the spokesperson said.
Police were called to the scene near the airfield in Pāuanui just after 9am.
The two people on board the aircraft were injured in the crash, Hato Hone St John said.
One person was in a moderate condition and one was in a minor condition. They have been transported to Thames Hospital.
The owners of the holiday home weren’t there at the time but had been planning to head there soon.
“Our holiday’s been disrupted,” the father, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
“I’ve got three girls, three teenage girls, and they’re all disappointed not being able to spend ... [time] in Pāuanui over the summer period.
“It might take a while to rebuild.“
He said the plane that hit his family home narrowly “missed our neighbour by a few metres”.
Images from the scene show part of the home destroyed after the plane appears to have smashed into a room overlooking the airfield.
A person on the Pāuanui Summit who saw the incident unfold said the aircraft was taking off when things went wrong.
“The aircraft was approximately three-quarters of the way down the runway when it veered off the runway and continued into a nearby house.”
They said the engine did not appear to slow down until after the collision occurred.
Debris from the house and the plane can be seen scattered on the grass.
A crowd had gathered outside the house to see the chaos.
Holidaymaker Amy Wiggins told Newstalk ZB she understood the crash happened as part of an attempted take-off.
“From what someone told me, the plane was trying to take off at the time and veered off and has taken out the front of a house, on the side of the airfield.”
Wiggins wasn’t present when the impact happened but reported hearing “a loud sort of bang” from her house and went down to investigate shortly afterwards.
From what she could see, it appeared the aircraft “hit the front of it and ended up inside the front corner of the house”.
“They’ve got an orange tarp on over the plane now and they’ve pulled it away from the house.”
Wiggins said a fire engine, fire rescue vehicle and “a whole lot of police” remain at the crash site.
Pāuanui Beach Aerodrome is a small aerodrome located in the middle of the beach township.
The Civil Aviation Authority has advised that planes coming in to land need to touch down past the accident site.
Fire and Emergency and the Pāuanui Beach Aerodrome have been approached for comment.