Light plane crashes at Thames airport

Two people have escaped uninjured after a light plane crashed at Thames airport.

The plane crashed just after 8am and witnesses said smoke was seen coming from the aircraft moments before it crashed about 50m from the runway.

Thames firefighters were at the crash scene within a few minutes.

The Thames airport was a small country airport and did not have a lot of air traffic and no full time fire appliances based at the airport, Fire Service shift controller Jarron Phillips said.

"One of our callers said the plane appears to be smoking. There were two people and both were out. There was no fuel leaking," he said.

Reports from the crash scene had the aircraft "pretty knackered" .

- NZ[A