Seven teams searching for crashed plane on Mt Egmont

Mount Egmont. Picture / Alan Gibson

UPDATE - Seven search teams have been deployed on Mt Egmont to find a twin engined aircraft with two people on board which crashed near the summit this morning.

Radar contact with the Piper Seneca was lost just after 10am.

The plane had not yet been located because of heavy cloud cover on the mountain, New Plymouth police said.

The crash site is believed to be at 2438m altitude, just below the 2518m summit of the mountain, also known as Mt Taranaki.

Police would not release details of those on the plane until family had been contacted, the police statement said.

It was uncertain where the aircraft came from, although police were this morning contacting operators in Taranaki and Nelson.

Searchers were being sent to various points on the mountain and would soon start climbing to the suspected crash site, believed to be on the south-western slopes, New Plymouth senior sergeant Selwyn Wansborough said earlier.

A mountain rescue team has joined a New Plymouth-based helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft to search for the missing aircraft, the Rescue Coordination Centre said.

Weather in the search area was fine but heavy cloud was hampering visibility from the air, centre spokesman Steve Corbett told NZPA.

Authorities confirmed this afternoon that the emergency locator beacon aboard the aircraft was still sounding.

But while this was providing searchers with solid evidence of where the missing plane may be, it had yet to be found because of heavy cloud cover on the mountain. Police said no further details of who was aboard the plane were available, because no contact had yet been made with their families.

The plane was en route from New Plymouth to Nelson.

Airways New Zealand communications manager Ken Mitchell said the plane was flying under VFR (visual flight rules) conditions when it went missing.

When it suddenly disappeared off radar at 9.55am and the emergency locator beacon began sounding, radar control in Christchurch immediately alerted search and rescue and police.

A spokesman for New Plymouth police told NZPA searches were beginning but were likely to be hampered by the weather conditions.

"It's very early days yet. The mountain is pretty much covered in cloud so an air search is impossible at the moment.

"They are trying what they can and it's a matter of getting field teams up there (to the crash site), which is thought to be pretty close to the top.

"That is yet to be confirmed but that is the point at which radar appears to have been lost."

The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) said a mountain rescue team had joined a New Plymouth-based helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft to search for the aircraft.

It said it was coordinating the search after being alerted by Christchurch Air Traffic Control.

- NZPA, HERALD STAFF