Plane crashes in Gordonton field
A light plane crashed into a Gordonton maize field last week, with the pilot ‘shaken’ but uninjured.
Waikato police Shift Sergeant Dale Smith said the pilot safely landed on the privately-owned airstrip on Ballard Rd and travelled South about 40 metres when the right wing clipped the maize field.
The plane then yanked itself right and submerged the first half of the plane in the maize, damaging both wings and the front of the plane, reports the NZ Herald.
The pilot, from the Coromandel and in his mid-50s, was shaken but uninjured.
Mr Smith said the pilot was landing to pick up the owner of the plane who was waiting at the airfield.
“It was a very routine landing and for whatever reason he has just clipped the maize and caused it to veer into it.”
The incident had been reported to the Civil Aviation Authority who would now investigate.
The owner of the plane was from the Waikato.Emergency services were at the scene, after the plane had made an emergency landing in a field in Horsham Downs in Gordonton, northern communications shift Inspector Chris Money said.
There were three people on board the plane, and none was injured in the crash, he said.
The incident occurred on Sunday 22 March, around 10am.
