Yak 52 Crashes in New Zealand - two dead
Baku, January 23 (AZERTAC). An investigation is under way after two men were killed in a fiery plane crash in a Fielding park in New Zealand.
An Aerostar Yak 52TW crashed into Timona Park to the east of the town centre at about 10:45am today, killing the two friends aboard the private flight, said police.
The small plane took off from the Taonui Aerodrome near Feilding about 25 minutes before it crashed and killed two men who were well-known in the Manawatu area, said police.
After the crash, witnesses reported the plane as barely recognisable, as the explosion left the plane no more than a mangled wreckage.
Yak-52 aeroplanes are imported from Russia, and commonly used as aerobatic trainers.
Gary Rakatau was in his backyard, a couple of kilometres away, when he saw the plane go down.
"I`m used to seeing planes flying all the time but this one was really loud and it seemed like it just fell out of the sky - just plummeted. It dropped out of the sky really fast, and it went faster and faster. It was probably about 20 seconds. It started down nose-first, all of a sudden.
"At the beginning he started turning and spinning but he got halfway to the ground and it started just going straight down, and the noise of the plane changed. It was going so fast, revving really, really high. It started roaring. The roar. The roaring of the motor was what got my attention."
Mr Rakatau said he saw the aircraft over a line of trees and the closer it got to the ground the louder it got.
Police have cordoned off the scene and erected a tent to preserve the wreckage while they investigate the remains over the next one to two days, said Inspector Mark Harrison.
A disaster victim identification team and investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) were at the scene today.
The CAA has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
Mr Harrison said it was "extremely fortunate" no one else was hurt, as the park had a children`s playground and bordered a river and residential area.
Police were informing the next of kin of the two men today.
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