The charred right wing of the Airworks Metroliner. Wreckage was strewn for kilometres near Stratford in Taranaki. Picture / Amos Chapple
Tina Mendes da Costa was frantic. The Wellington woman had just heard that a plane had exploded in the skies above Stratford and she knew her fiance, Roger Adamson, could have been flying it.
"I sent him a text to see if he was all right and I got no
reply, so I called him. It went straight to the answerphone."
Soon her worst fears were realised. Mr Adamson's boss, Airwork chief executive Greg Barrow, called to tell her the news she did not want to hear.
The 43-year-old father-of-two, who had saved countless lives as an air ambulance pilot, had been aboard the Fairchild Metroliner and both he and fellow pilot Anthony Drummond, 41, of Auckland, were dead.
The pair were found after an extensive aerial search about two hours after the plane, carrying mail from Auckland to Blenheim, crashed on Tuesday night.
Ms Mendes da Costa talked of a "wonderful, kind person" with an infectious smile, who had been a loving father to William, 16, and Dylan, 11.
She had dropped Mr Adamson off at Wellington airport on Tuesday afternoon.
Ms Mendes da Costa called him just before his flight was to take off from Auckland, telling him she loved him and to have a safe trip.
"They all think they're invincible, and it's statistically safer to fly than drive your car."
He was a Southland-born "out and out southern man" who had operated a scenic flight business in Motueka before shifting to Wellington in 1998 to further his career as a pilot.
After stints with several airlines, he took a job as a pilot with Airwork, which involved delivering mail for New Zealand Post and its subsidiaries and flying the air ambulances for the Life Flight Trust.
Ms Mendes da Costa and Mr Adamson were soon to be married.
Life Flight operations manager Dave Greenberg said the air ambulance service was saddened to lose a "good friend and a damn good pilot".
Tony Drummond, of Bucklands Beach, lived with his partner of 18 years, Carole, and their son Nicholas, aged 23 months, his family said.
"Tony had an ability to get on with anyone, as he had a genuine interest in other people. He was a lot of fun to be around and was a valued friend and mentor to many people," the family said.
He had been a printer before becoming a pilot, they said.
"Tony always wanted to fly. He was doing what he really loved. He had been flying for over 10 years and it was his passion."
The Airworks Metroliner, carrying NZ Post courier cargo and mail from Auckland to Blenheim, crashed about 10.15pm roughly 5km east of Stratford on Tuesday.
The aircraft's tail was found 2km from the crash site, and other debris, including the plane's motor and the mail it was carrying, littered steep peaks for hundreds of metres around.
Early indications were that the plane turned off-course and disappeared from radar screens before the crash, said Inspector Frank Grant.
Airways Corporation spokesman Ken Mitchell said air traffic controllers received no mayday from the plane, which had been flying at a height of about 22,000ft.
"Early indications are the aircraft disappeared from radar at 19,000ft, but that's still unconfirmed."
Witnesses said the aircraft shook houses as it passed overhead on fire, before exploding in a ball of flames.
Rodney MacFarlane said he and wife Bronwyn heard the plane roar over their home about 10.15pm.
"We heard a screaming noise like a two-stroke motorbike. It was very, very loud, and the next thing, 'boom'," Mr MacFarlane said.
They ran to their bedroom window and saw two balls of flame, "one big ball and a small one and the plane tumbling between them".
Mrs MacFarlane called 111
A Blenheim air cargo pilot with years of experience said investigators would look first at whether someone had posted "undeclared hazardous goods" that should not have been sent.
"Aeroplanes don't come down like this," he said. "It is not normally this dramatic."
NZ Post spokesman Ian Long said there was nothing to suggest any hazardous substances were on board.
- NZPA, staff reporters
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