Plane hits with ‘hell of a bang’ at airshow
The pilot of a plane that crashed shortly after the opening of Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow yesterday was shaken but not injured, the airshow general manager says.
Arthur Dovey’s rare Yak 3 Russian fighter plane landed on a grass runway at Wanaka Airport but clipped one of two cherry pickers parked between the grass and sealed runways.
The retired airline pilot was flying his Yak 3 alongside another in the show’s opening display, just before the crash about 10am.
Dovey signalled to the crowd he was okay when he emerged from the mangled plane and walked away uninjured.
The aircraft was seriously damaged with part of a wing torn off.
A witness said the plane hit with a “hell of a bang”.
Warbirds Over Wanaka general manager Ed Taylor said he spoke to Dovey, who has flown at the event and other airshows around New Zealand for many years, immediately after the crash and he was shaken up but not hurt. Taylor said the left wing of the plane was badly damaged, along with the undercarriage on that side.
“They can all be rebuilt but it’s the cost of it.”
Another witness to the crash, photographer Matthew Warner, said he heard a “massive bang” and looked around to see the Yak 3 colliding with the cherry picker. “Fortunately the pilot was okay but they’ve spent the last hour cleaning up the mess.”
The show was set back by about 35 minutes as emergency services attended to the crash.
Festivities will go ahead planned today from from 10am. as