Xavier Boughey, 6, snaps a memento. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Pilot Brian Williams was lucky to escape unscathed when his light plane's engine stopped dead, forcing him to land yesterday in the hilltop paddocks of Macleans College, Bucklands Beach.
The home-built Stoddard-Hamilton Glasair SH-2R, worth about $95,000, also escaped major damage, although the underside, engine and propeller will need repairing
after the accident at 3.45pm.
Witnesses reported hearing the plane's engine die before it landed on grass, facing uphill and away from the beach it had been flying above only moments earlier.
Mr Williams, who appeared very calm just minutes after his unexpected landing, had been flying from Taupo to the North Shore Airfield before the accident.
The North Shore man declined to outline what had happened, saying only: "I'm okay ... I'm a lucky man."
Witness Chris Loader was at the Bucklands Beach Reformed Church below the site when he heard the plane's engine die.
"We were down on the beach. We could hear that it was running out of gas, just by the stalling of the engine. It flew over us - well, glided over us," he said.
"You could just hear the engine splutter a bit and we could tell that it was having a bit of trouble. He was very low.
"I heard one of the officers say he just made it over the crest [of the hill], otherwise he would have landed in the trees over there."
Mr Loader and his friends - as well as many other onlookers - rushed up the hill in their cars to see what had happened.
Families flocked over the Macleans College fields and took photos of their children near the plane.
Sergeant Kylie Newton of Howick police said Mr Williams' flying skills had prevented further grief.
Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer said an investigation was under way into what the authority called a "precautionary landing".
Mr Sommer said the investigation would look into all possible causes for a plane's engine to lose power, including lack of fuel.
Mr Williams' insurance company is in charge of removing the plane.
