A plane passenger has serious injuries after a light plane collided with a digger on a truck and crashed over a rural road at an airport near Feilding this evening.
Witness Bridgette Blumenthal saw the plane collide while it was attempting to land.
"I heard a horrific bang and everything went everywhere, " she said. "I went running out there and saw half the plane here and half the plane there.
"It was horrendous, I can't believe it. And the bloke in the truck, I don't think he could believe what happened. "
The truck was transporting the digger past the airfield.
"There were two people in the plane," Blumenthal said. "I came and got blankets for them.
"The pilot was a woman who seemed OK and there was a man in shock."
Blumenthal said the truck towing the digger had been driving towards Campbell Rd.
The light plane was in pieces across the road, with the cockpit and wings crumpled on the runway.
The digger was on a trailer towed by a Higgins truck. Higgins staff on the scene did not comment.
Police central communication Inspector Mike Coleman said police, fire and ambulance personnel were called to the incident near the end of the runway at Taonui Airfield at 5.07pm.
The passenger, in his early 20s, had walked away from the crash.
He was inspected by ambulance officers at the scene before being taken to Palmerston North Hospital with serious injuries, Coleman said.
Taonui Rd would remain closed while investigations at the scene took place and motorists were advised to take another route.
The Civil Aviation Authority had been informed, Coleman said.
Source: Manawatū Standard
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