"We have every expectation our son will be getting off a plane in Wellington tomorrow," says Wendy Ayley, mother of Otaki man Robert Ayley, who was on flight MH17.

Tensions are ramping up between two global super powers after a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight was shot down over Ukraine.

Scenes of horror, with crumpled corpses and body parts strewn amid the smouldering wreckage, greeted local villagers and pro-Russian rebels who were first on the crash site.

A Malaysia Airlines flight attendant who flew to Auckland a fortnight ago is among those on board the Boeing 777 airliner shot down in Ukraine early yesterday NZ time.

News organisations have forever struggled with determining the line where news value ends and shock value and sensationalism begin.

A New Zealand woman has been confirmed as being among the victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash. Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully confirmed the death and said another person, a British citizen who had been living in New Zealand, was also killed. The New Zealand woman, a longtime resident of Australia, was travelling with her husband, a Dutch citizen."Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those involved," says Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

Air force commanders allowed a dangerous and deadly culture of rule-breaking that ultimately resulted in the deaths of three young airmen, a court has found.

Gold futures posted the biggest gain in four weeks after Ukraine said rebels shot down a Malaysian jet carrying 295 people near its border with Russia. Palladium extended a rally to a 13-year high.

An inquest in Gloucester has heard how a plane crash that killed a British pilot in the Congo may have been caused by passengers panicking over an escaped crocodile.

Investigators looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have discovered possible evidence of tampering with the aircraft's cockpit equipment.

A pilot "did everything right" to land a light aircraft in a paddock after the engine failed during take-off today at Auckland's Ardmore Airport.

Two Ryanair planes have been damaged in a collision at Stansted Airport, Essex UK, causing three hour delays to flights.

Australian officials say the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane will shift farther south of the most recent suspected crash site in a remote stretch of Indian Ocean.

Air NZ says it's business as usual, despite an inquiry into a crash in San Francisco finding the complexity of the Boeing 777 was to blame.

Malaysian police believe if the disappearance of MH370 was the act of human intervention then the likely perpetrator was the pilot.

The wife of New Zealander Paul Weeks, who was on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 when it vanished, will reject an offer of compensation.

It's been revealed the Malaysian Government has spend just a fraction of what Australia has paid in the search for missing flight MH370.

Countries searching for the missing Malaysian plane have yet to agree on how to share costs, an Australian search leader said.

A Northland writer has apologised to the widow of a Kiwi missing on MH370 after she took offence at a book he's penned about the jet's disappearance.

The widow of NZer Paul Weeks, who was on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 when it vanished, has hit out at the Kiwi author of a new novella.

The widow of New Zealander Paul Weeks has hit out at the Kiwi author of a new novella on the plane's disappearance.

After a fruitless three-month hunt for flight MH370, Australian authorities have taken the first step towards handing over search operations to a private contractor.

A British woman sailing near Indonesia at the time MH370 vanished says she saw a plane 'burning' and billowing smoke before it crashed.

A man killed in the Carterton balloon crash had been relishing life after receiving news he was clear of cancer only weeks before the fatal trip, an inquest has been told.

A visiting plane on a training flight landed safely at the Greymouth aerodrome about 12.15pm today after reporting problems with the landing gear.

A young couple who jumped from a burning hot air balloon basket had their whole lives ahead of them and thought the pilot they were flying with was the "safest" in NZ.