KEY POINTS:
A New Zealand man has been killed in a midair collision in Australia.
James Douglas Maria, 60, who was one of Australia's most experienced agricultural pilots, died when his crop duster and another plane being flown by a friend collided.
He had been spraying a paddock above a
farm 10km north of Wee Waa in New South Wales last Tuesday morning.
Mr Maria was turning his plane when there was a collision with the other aircraft, which had just taken off and was on its way to another job.
The planes burst into flames when they hit the ground.
The other pilot, who Mr Maria had met through working in the industry and is described by family as a "good friend" of his, dragged himself to safety despite broken limbs and minor burns.
The 45-year-old is in a serious but stable condition at Tamworth Base Hospital.
Mr Maria had been flying for Cropjet Aviation.
The other aircraft was operated by Cropair.
Mr Maria's sister Yvonne Simms told the Herald that he brother had grown up in Oruru, 32km east of Kaitaia.
He attended Oruru Primary School, Taipa District High School and later boarded in Auckland, where he attended Mt Albert Grammar School.
In 1966 he went to Wee Waa on a working holiday and "fell in love with the place", Mrs Simms said.
He returned to New Zealand where he obtained his commercial pilot's licence with Wanganui Aero Club, which enabled him to go back to Wee Waa to fly in 1968.
He married a local woman, with whom he had five children. They were separated.
Mrs Simms described her brother as an "extremely bright man".
He was a member of Mensa International - an organisation for which people must score at the 98th per centile of an intelligence test to join.
"He was an intellectual sort of person, a deep thinker.
"He loved talking about books, politics, the sharemarkets. He was a serious thinker."
Mrs Simms said her brother liked to keep fit and would swim up to 60 lengths of a pool each day.
"He was a vegetarian and he wasn't a drinker."
He was passionate about his job, Mrs Simms said.
"He took huge pride in what he did. He was methodical, careful, gave 100 per cent to his work."
The owner of Cropjet Aviation, Conrad Bolton, told AAP that Mr Maria had more than 20,000 logged hours flying crop dusters in 36 years as a pilot and was "probably Australia's most senior agricultural pilot".
He had known Mr Maria for decades since working as ground crew for him as a schoolboy. "It's a big blow."
Mr Bolton said it was a "very, very rare event" for two crop dusters to collide.
"Air agriculture is very visual, you haven't got time to be looking down at your instruments.
"It's heads up, observing everything that's going on around the aircraft.
"[A collision is] something that's almost an impossibility, but it's happened."
Air Transport Safety Bureau investigators have been sifting through the wreckage of the planes and are yet to determine the cause of the collision.
They are to prepare a preliminary report in a month's time.
Mr Maria's body was returned to New Zealand yesterday.
A memorial service was held in Wee Waa last week and his New Zealand funeral will be held in Mangonui today.
His is the second fatal crash in 18 months involving a Cropjet Aviation aircraft.
In December 2006, a 45-year-old crop duster pilot died in a crash in the Collarenbri district.
