By Jason Collie
Nigel Cribb thought he was dreaming when he saw a glider plummet on the Maramarua farm where he works, killing the pilot.
Mr Cribb had been mustering bulls when he caught sight of the glider just out of the corner of his eye yesterday at 4 pm.
At first everything
seemed normal, but then the one-man glider fell from about 200 feet. The pilot was Murray Owen Hopkins, aged 59, a Papakura manager.
"It was just gliding and it stopped," Mr Cribb said. "It did not turn or do anything. It just came down.
"I did not believe it at first. When I went to look for it, I thought I was dreaming.
"It was lucky I saw it, otherwise we would not have found him in the creek down between the paddocks."
Mr Hopkins, who went gliding in the aircraft he part-owned almost every weekend, had taken off from the Auckland Gliding Club at Drury about 1 pm.
The club's chief flying instructor, John Bayliss, said Mr Hopkins was due to return at 4.30 pm after flying in an area he knew well.
Clutching the small cuddly teddy bear Mr Hopkins carried as a mascot, Mr Bayliss said: "He was a very experienced and keen pilot. Murray was out there [at Drury] pretty much every weekend, whether it was flying or helping around the club. He was a great character."
Mr Bayliss said Mr Hopkins had been a member of the club for at least 15 years.
He had also spent a lot of time flying powered aircraft.
Owen Stewart, safety investigator for the Civil Aviation Authority, said it was too early to say what had caused the crash.
Pictured: Investigators examining the glider. HERALD PICTURE / BRENDON O'HAGAN
