The former head of the NZ Fire Service and a senior technology worker have been named as the two men who died in a Tararua Ranges light plane crash on Sunday evening.
Police today named the men as 44-year-old Norman Alan Comerford of Paekakariki and 70-year-old Michael James Hall, known as Mike, of Te Horo.
Mr Hall was the former national commander of the New Zealand Fire Service and Mr Comerford was the chief technology officer at Snapper Services.
Chief Executive of Snapper Services Miki Szikszai gave tribute to his former employee Mr Comerford.
"We are all deeply saddened at the loss of our dear friend and colleague. Norm has made a huge contribution to the organisation and to the development of many Snapper staff.
"He has been a key part of the success of Snapper from the very start. He will be greatly missed.
"Our thoughts are with the families and all affected by this tragedy."
The mens' plane failed to land at Paraparaumu on Sunday night after taking off from Foxpine Airstrip, near Foxton at 3.16pm.
Emergency services were called in around 8pm after it failed to touch down at Kāpiti Coast Airport.
The wreckage was located around 7.30am yesterday.
Rescue Coordination Centre search and rescue mission coordinator Dave Wilson said the light plane wreckage was found 270 metres from the last detected radar signal, high in the mountains of the Tararua Ranges.
“It would still have been very challenging given the weather conditions and also the terrain they were searching in,” he said yesterday.
“The helicopter had to hover overhead and they winched the search and rescue squad down into the location through that terrain to get to the wreckage of the aircraft.”
He said the terrain was covered in forest, with steep and narrow gullies.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said today that weather conditions continue to make it unsafe for investigators to travel there.
The forecast is being constantly evaluated, he said.
He said investigators have started gathering initial information about the crash.
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