Weather delays access to plane

A light plane that crashed in the Southern Alps had clearly experienced a ‘‘severe impact’’, says the crew of the rescue helicopter that located the aircraft.

Senior pilot Stuart Farquhar at Canterbury Westpac Rescue Helicopters said the helicopter crew hovered above the downed plane, taking photographs and videos of the scene, but the weather was too poor to land.

‘‘It was obvious the plane had a severe impact,’’ he said.

‘‘The plane was all together and all in one place, but it was obvious that it was a very severe impact.’’

The plane left Franz Josef about 9am on Thursday and was en route to Rangiora, North Canterbury, when it crashed.

One person was on the plane, which was found by a rescue helicopter near Mt Nicholson on Thursday afternoon.

Farquhar said the plane was located on McCoy Glacier in the Southern Alps near Mount Nicholson at a height of about 2000 metres. The crew could not see anybody at the scene.

The weather conditions were very poor, which made it difficult to access the glacier, he said.

‘‘The weather conditions yesterday were less than desirable to be flying around the mountains. It was terrible weather with pretty heavy, fluctuating winds and snow blowing off the glacier.

‘‘There were several attempts to get to the scene of the incident. They managed to finally get in there and locate the aircraft.’’

He said poor weather would mean a helicopter would not be able to return to the site until tomorrow at the earliest or even late next week.

Air Traffic Control notified the Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand its assistance was required at 11am on Thursday.

A plan was developed overnight to try to reach the area yesterday, but it was put on hold because of ‘‘winds being above a safe operating level for helicopters’’, a Maritime New Zealand spokesperson said.

Another attempt would be made to reach the crash site when the weather improved.

‘‘The plane was all together and all in one place, but it was obvious that it was a very severe impact.’’ Stuart Farquhar Canterbury Westpac Rescue Helicopters