Updated: New Zealand plane crash similar to Tallahassee, FL incident.
A plane crashed yesterday (March 12, 2010) at 3:55 PM local time 38 miles from Whangarei, New Zealand killing the pilot and sole occupant of the aircraft, Stace Hopper. The aircraft involved in the accident is unclear at the time. Originally, I posted that the accident aircraft was a Aerostar/Yakovlev Yak-52, but it is now known that this is not the case. A New Zealand newspaper is reporting the accident aircraft as a Cessna 120, while Aviation-Safety.net reports it as a Cessna U206G Stationair.
The aircraft was operating out of the Marsden Cove Marina (Hopper Developments Airstrip) near One Tree Point (Whangarei Harbor). Some reports say the aircraft was trying to take off when a gust of wind caught the plane. The aircraft then clipped a van in which the pilot’s brother and other people were in before crashing and catching fire. Other reports say the plane crashed into the ground before hitting the van. Two people in the van suffered cuts from glass.
I’m curious to see why the van was so close to the airplane´s flight path. This kind of reminds me of the Piper Super Cub that crashed into a Jeep in Tallahassee, Florida. In that accident, the Piper Super Cub was taking off and trying to buzz a jeep when a wing dipped and hit the Jeep, sending the Jeep into a tree and killing both its occupants.
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Only the pilot was killed, one of the occupants in the van, a child was injured. The Van was damagd when the Cessna 206 wing clipped it but it did not hit a tree