INSTRUCTOR: Joe Dyson
The pilot of a skydiving plane which suffered a suspected engine failure over Lake Taupo was on his first day of flying unsupervised when he made the call to abandon the aircraft.
Skydive Taupo pilot Matt Cook, six skydivers and their six instructors bailed out of the Pacific Aerospace 750XL plane at 2000ft before it crashed into the lake near Rotongaio Bay on Wednesday.
Company director Roy Clements said yesterday that the crash occurred on the pilot's first day of flying solo.
Mr Cook had completed three other solo flights that day prior to the crash occurring.
"He started training with us in November last year, every flight he has done [before Wednesday] has been supervised," Mr Clements said.
"He's got in excess of 500 hours - I'd suggest that is reasonably experienced, but he's been working in different areas of aviation."
Five of the skydive instructors involved in the crash on Wednesday were back at work yesterday, while the sixth was on a rostered day off.
"They were straight back up - it's not unusual for us to jump out of planes, it's what we do everyday."
The company's 30-strong team had also been briefed following the incident, Mr Clements said.
"It's amazing how a situation like this can actually bond the staff even more," he said.
Mr Clements had last spoken to the pilot mid-afternoon on Thursday. Mr Cook had left town for a few days to spend time with family.
He had no plans to leave the company, Mr Clements said. "He's back at work on Monday."
One of the skydive instructors involved yesterday spoke to media for the first time since the crash, saying he would never forget the day.
Joe Dyson, 29, said he had survived a couple of parachute failures before, but never an aircraft failure.
The ascent had started normally, Mr Dyson said, until he heard what he described as "a loud bang" at 2500ft, or 762m.
That was followed by sparks flying past the aircraft's windows and "the worst grinding noise I've ever heard in my life as the propeller stopped".
The aircraft then fell silent, followed by a frantic discussion between the pilot and the six instructors.
"Then the decision was made that we all needed to exit ... I just heard the big booming 'Get out!' And so we began hooking up our passengers.
"I was the third group out, there were a couple of guys on my left and I moved past them on the way to the door."
Mr Dyson said he activated his reserve chute on exit and then exchanged his disbelief at the scenario with his Dutch tandem partner.
"Under the parachute [he] was going through the same kind of thing as me - 'Did that just happen?' You need altitude to open your parachute, your main chutes typically take longer to open than your reserve, which is why we all went straight to reserve - altitude was in short supply in this situation."
They landed on a beach at Waitahanui, on the shore of Lake Taupo, next to another pair who had escaped the aircraft, he said.
Emergency crews checked over the survivors and despite a few scratches on those who had landed in blackberry bushes, everyone had escaped unscathed, Mr Dyson said.
Coming up to his fourth year as a pro skydiver, Mr Dyson said the emergency evacuation took place on his 3132nd jump - a number he was "probably going to remember for a while". NZME.