Double trouble for pilot

A LIGHT plane that made a successful emergency landing on an Auckland beach crashed when it tried to take off again.

No-one was hurt when the sixcylinder, 120-horsepower Jabiru landed on Martins Bay beach, on the Mahurangi Peninsula near Warkworth, about 11.30am yesterday.

Pilot Dennis Horne, of Howick, Auckland, said he was flying from Ardmore to Whangarei when the plane’s new engine cut out about 5 kilometres off Martins Bay.

He managed to land on the empty south end of the beach.

Co-pilot Manfred Scherbius told One News they heard the engine stop. ‘‘It is not the sort of thing the pilot wants to hear, es- pecially when he’s engine,’’ he said.

‘‘We actually landed on some rocks which was a bit rough but it only damaged the aircraft slightly.’’

Martins Bay Holiday Park manager Linda Brickland said luckily the 500 to 600 children on the beach were clustered together at a sandcastle competition.

Mr Horne said he and his passenger transferred fuel from one wing to the other, but when they tried to take off again they touched the water, causing the plane to ‘‘nosedive’’ into the sand, breaking its propeller and damaging its wing.

A truck later towed the plane off the beach.

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