A PILOT escaped uninjured after he was forced to land near a school after his light plane developed engine problems.
Brian Williams managed to get his home-built Stoddard-Hamilton Glasair SH-2R down safely in Macleans Reserve, Bucklands Beach, at about 3.45pm on Sunday.
Mr Williams, who was on a flight from Taupo to the North Shore Airfield, said he was a “lucky man” after touching down.
The cause of the precautionary landing will be ascertained by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after it receives a full report from the pilot, CAA spokesman Bill Sommer told the Times.
An initial report obtained from the pilot on Sunday was that the engine started to run rough so he looked for a spot to put down, Mr Sommer says.
He won’t confirm media reports of a lack of fuel. “That’s speculation on the part of the NZ Herald [media],” he says. “We have been told the engine was running rough.”
Mr Sommer says the CAA will not be putting a team on the site. “We will get a full report from the pilot and investigate from that the prime reason for the forced landing.
“One advantage is we have a live pilot there compared with a fatal accident.
“The purpose of us investigating is to determine the cause, not assign blame. We want to know why he needed to land.”
CAA advised the pilot on Sunday afternoon that he was free to remove the aircraft.
Mr Sommer says the engine will be overhauled and it should be possible to find out whether the incident was the result of a mechanical fault.
“We would expect to sort it out in a couple of months once the information is flowing.”
A New Zealand Police statement issued on Sunday said: “As the pilot approached the Eastern Beach area he developed engine problems so decided to land in the reserve which is very large.
“Apart from propeller damage the plane appears to be undamaged. An ambulance attended but the pilot did not need to go to hospital.”
Howick Fire Service, which was already attending a fire at Otara, received a call to the incident. Local fire service volunteers and the Mt Wellington brigade were first to the scene.
The Mt Wellington team left when the Howick brigade arrived.
“We were there for about half an hour,” says John Searle, Howick fire station officer. “We left once we saw that the site was safe – fuel turned off and the power off.”
Warren Yardley, a teacher at Macleans College, drove by the school late on Sunday afternoon.
He saw large numbers of people gathering and walking across the school field but did not realise a crash had occurred.
“It was amazing, the number of people going across the college. I thought it was a tramp or something.”
The pilot is a member of the North Shore Aero Club, which declined to comment on the incident.
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Brian Williams safely touched down his home-built Stoddard-Hamilton Glasair SH-2R in Macleans Reserve, Bucklands Beach, at about 3.45pm yesterday.
The $95,000 plane suffered minor damage to its underside, engine and propeller.
People reported hearing the plane’s engine die before it landed on grass, facing uphill and away from the beach it had been flying over.
Mr Williams, who was on a flight from Taupo to the North Shore Airfield, said he was a lucky man after touching down.
Eyewitness Chris Loader, who was on the beach at the time, heard the aircraft was running out of gas because the engine was stalling.
He and his friends, along with other onlookers, rushed up to see what had happened.
Warren Yardley, a teacher at Macleans, drove by the school late on Sunday afternoon.
A spokesman for New Zealand Police said: “As the pilot approached the Eastern Beach area he developed engine problems so decided to land in the reserve which is very large. “Apart from propeller damage the plane appears to be undamaged. An ambulance attended but the pilot did not need to go through to hospital. Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer said an investigation was under way into what the authority called a “precautionary landing”.
The investigation will look into all possible reasons which may have caused the plane’s engine to lose, including lack of fuel, and the pilot’s insurance company is in charge of removing the plane.
