The two men killed in a plane crash in Feilding yesterday have been named.
They were Dr Ralph Saxe, of Palmerston North, and Dr Brett Ireland, of Queensland.
Dr Ireland had previously lived in the Manawatu but had been living in Australia for a number of years. It is thought he was back in New Zealand for the funeral of a friend.
Dr Ireland was a chiropractor and owned the Gold Coast Chiropractic Centre and an employee told APNZ he was "a wonderful man''.
She had worked for him for 10 years.
He had worked as a chiropractor in New Zealand for 18 years before "my wife and I decided we wanted to live on the beautiful Gold Coast'', he said on the centre's website.
"We sold our practices and moved here in 2002. We bought Gold Coast Chiropractic Centre and with our three children have settled here permanently.''
Dr Saxe, 51, was a well-known local doctor who had worked extensively in South Africa and New Zealand.
He was managing director at the Palms Medical Centre in Palmerston North, where his wife, Joanne, is also a practice manager.
On his curriculum vitae he said in 2002 he was elected onto the MidCentral District Health Board, where he was a member for two years.
Dr Saxe had also worked as a GP and a pharmaceutical company manager in South Africa in the 1990s.
Between 1992 and 1996, he worked as a GP in Melkbrosstrand, 35km north of Cape Town.
In his spare time he was a keen flyer, and had his private pilot's licence.
Dr Saxe was part of the Feilding Aero Club, the Manawatu Aero Club and the Rifle, Rod and Gun Club in Palmerston North.
On his curriculum vitae, he listed flying, shooting and trout fishing as some of his interests.
Dr Saxe and Dr Ireland were in an Aerostar Yak 52TW co-owned by Dr Saxe when they crashed in a Feilding park about 10.45am yesterday.
The small plane took off from the Taonui Aerodrome near Feilding about 25 minutes before it crashed.
Witnesses said the plane was barely recognisable after the crash, the explosion leaving it a mangled wreckage.
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) safety investigators have been at the scene of the crash this morning.
Lead Safety Investigator Al Moselen said he and colleague Steve Walker had made a general assessment of the wider wreckage area but the main portion of the fuselage remains under the control of the police victim identification team.
Police were expected to release that portion of the wreckage to the CAA tomorrow.
"It has been suggested that the Yak 52 was carrying out aerobatics prior to the accident but this has not been confirmed,'' Mr Moselen said.
