The wreckage of a crashed skydiving plane is due to be lifted from Lake Taupo today.
The recovery of the wreckage had been planned with the salvage divers, a helicopter operator and a range of local agencies and was expected to take several hours, Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) spokesman Peter Northcote said.
A five person police dive squad working with TAIC yesterday surveyed, videoed and photographed the wreckage of the aircraft after it plummeted from the sky following a suspected engine failure yesterday.
All six skydivers, their six instructors and the pilot of Skydive Taupo's bright-pink Pacific Aerospace 750XL were forced to abandon the plane at 2000ft, before it crashed in to the lake near Rotongaio Bay shortly before midday on Wednesday.
The survey of the crashed aircraft took most of the day due to the extensive fragmentation of the aircraft, Mr Northcote said.
It was hoped that the aircraft's engine data recorder could be successfully retrieved so it could then be taken to Australia, where its contents would be downloaded by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, he said.
Interviews were completed yesterday with five of the tandem skydive masters and four key eyewitnesses, and interviews would continue today, Mr Northcote earlier said.
The TAIC inquiry was focused on establishing what went wrong and why, and ensuring any lessons or recommendations to reduce the chance of recurrence.
TAIC air accident investigator Peter Williams yesterday described the engine failure as a sudden stoppage, followed by a burst of flames out of the exhaust.
- NZME, additional reporting NZ Herald
