Lucky escape when plane flipped

Three men on board a light plane escaped serious injury when it flipped as it came into land at Hawke's Bay Airport yesterday.

The crash-landing, just after noon, disrupted flights into and out of the airport for about two hours.

Witnesses said the Cessna 206 appeared to make an abrupt last-minute change of direction as it prepared to touch down on the airport's secondary east-west runway.

The plane appeared to lose power and nose-dived, ending up resting upside-down on grass near the northern end of the main north-south runway used by commercial aircraft.

Police said the pilot and two passengers on board managed to get out of the plane and were not injured.

Several fire appliances, police and St John ambulance crews responded to the crash.

St John staff assessed all three of the men who were on the Cessna but none of them needed to be transported to hospital.

"One of the men had very minor injuries to his arm," district operations manager Stephen Smith said.

Passengers on an Air New Zealand flight about to depart for Wellington had just boarded their aircraft when the crash-landing happened.

They were instructed to disembark from their plane and return to the airport terminal.

Flights in and out of Hawke's Bay were delayed or cancelled until about 2pm as inspections were made of the plane and the runway.

The airport's commercial manager, Wayne Wootton, said the Cessna belonged to a local operator based at the airport but he was unable to release further details yesterday.

The incident was referred to the Civil Aviation Authority.

 

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