‘No explosion, no flames’ in fatal crash

A Canterbury man saw a light plane coming down ‘‘at a hell of a speed’’ before it crashed into the lake near his home.

A Cessna 172 aircraft belonging to the Canterbury Aero Club was found crashed on Thursday evening in the dry lake bed of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere near Motukarara, south of Christchurch.

The pilot, who was the only person on the plane, died at the scene. The wreckage is yet to be recovered.

Motukarara resident Ross Wilson said he saw something coming down ‘‘rapidly’’ outside his window.

He told his sister he thought he had seen a plane crash but she suggested it was probably a meteorite.

‘‘I immediately thought it was a plane, you could just tell by the way it was coming down. You could see the lights on the wings as it was coming directly down.

‘‘There was no explosion ... there was no flames, no nothing.

‘‘I just thought: well, there will be no hope … the impact was just incredible.’’

The incident happened about 10.15pm and he saw a helicopter fly over soon after, he said. ‘‘I knew then that there was an accident.

‘‘I saw they put the spotlight on the plane and I could see it quite clearly.’’

Canterbury Aero Club chief executive Jeremy Ford said: ‘‘It is with great regret that we must report the crash of one of our aircraft on a routine training flight over Lake Ellesmere. The pilot has not survived the impact.’’

The pilot was a member of the club and no-one else was on board.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would investigate, Ford said.

‘‘The club is undertaking its emergency response procedure, which will include notifying next of kin.

‘‘There is no immediate indication of the cause of the crash.’’

Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) said an emergency location transmitter (ELT) signal was received at 10.20pm from a Cessna 172 aircraft from the Canterbury Aero Club.

The emergency location transmitter activated automatically when the plane crashed. It was established from air traffic control that the plane had left controlled airspace about one hour earlier, near Tai Tapu in the Port Hills east of Lincoln, the RCCNZ said.

Garden City Helicopters general manager Simon Duncan said the Westpac rescue helicopter crew was 10 minutes into a hospital transfer when they were diverted to the crash at 10.33pm. The crew found the wreckage and confirmed one person had died.

A CAA spokesman said two safety investigators from Wellington and one from Christchurch were being sent to the site yesterday.

He said the plane’s occupant was night flying when the aircraft ‘‘suffered a high impact landing on the mud flats’’.

Police confirmed RCCNZ called them to the crash on Thursday evening and they were making inquiries.