Stewart Island Flights director Bill Moffatt confirmed the Piper Cherokee, which was carrying four trampers and a pilot to Mason Bay on Stewart Island, had its trip cut short when it landed on Oreti Beach about 9am.
‘‘The plane was airborne but the pilot wasn’t too happy with how the engine was performing so he elected to land there.’’
Mr Moffatt said the pilot ‘‘did the right thing’’ to land the plane and it was ‘‘nothing really out of the ordinary’’.
‘‘It was the perfect place to land. It’s not something that’s foreign to us because the charter flights always land on the beach at Mason Bay at low tide.
‘‘That’s where they drop trampers off to do the walking tracks there.’’
Two Fire and Emergency crews from Invercargill attended and police were notified.
A Fenz spokesman said crews took a tanker and ute to the beach ‘‘as a precaution’’, but they were not needed.
An engineer ran checks on the plane at Oreti Beach and it was determined there was ‘‘nothing wrong with it’’, Mr Moffat said.
Passengers were then driven to Invercargill Airport and put on another flight to Mason Bay about 45 minutes later.
Everyone was safe and ‘‘fine’’ and there were no injuries.
Earlier in the day, a police spokeswoman said she understood the plane had landed due to a ‘‘fuel issue’’.
Invercargill Airport general manager Nigel Finnerty confirmed airport staff responded to reports of an aircraft landing on the beach — however, the aircraft was able to return to the airport before the response team had reached the area.
