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Jessica Neeson - Source: ONE News -
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Flight Training Manawatu has suspended operations after its chief flight instructor, Jessica Neeson, and a female student were killed in a mid-air collision between two Cessna 152s yesterday.
The incident occurred near Feilding Aerodrome, 6km southeast of the town, about 3.30pm.
A foreign student in his 20s, at the controls of one of the aircraft, managed to land safely at nearby Taonui Airfield but the other plane crashed into a paddock on Durie Rd, killing Neeson, 27. The male student is uninjured.
The female student who has not yet been named is in her 60s and from the Kapiti Coast area.
Her name will be released once all family members have been told of her death, central district police spokeswoman Kim Perks said today.
The flight school, which has around 50 students, has suspended operations as Transport Accident Investigation Commission officials launch an investigation into the crash.
Flight Training Manawatu chief executive Michael Bryant said last night he was struggling to "get his head around" what had happened. He said the flight instructor who died was a long-time friend.
"I'm struggling with all the emotions...I've lost one of my chief flying instructors who was a wonderful person."
Neeson had flown with the company for about five years. She received her C category instructor rating in 2005 and her B category the following year. The flight school's website says she was working towards her A category rating.
The sole survivor of the collision has almost completed his commercial pilot's licence.
Flight Training Manawatu is based at the airfield and has been operating for 20 years. It has 11 aircraft and is an associated aviation provider for Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, offering a full time Diploma in Aviation Science.
"We've never had to deal with anything of this magnitude before," Bryant said.
The crash comes just two weeks after another plane crash in the Manawatu, which left an instructor and student seriously injured.
Gary Skedgwell, 30, was on a commercial pilot's licence training flight from Hastings Airport with trainee Sam Metzger, 18, when the two-seater Air Hawke's Bay Piper Tomahawk crashed in the Ruahine Ranges, north of Palmerston North.
Metzger was treated for chest and leg injuries and Skedgwell suffered serious head, chest and leg injuries.
Three air force servicemen from the region's Ohakea base were killed when their Iroquois helicopter crashed into a hillside near Pukerua Bay, north of Wellington, on Anzac Day.
ONE News reporter Alexi O'Brien spoke from the scene today, where a tent is covering the wreckage of the women's Cessna.
Air investigators have been at the scene all day, speaking to witnesses.
O'Brien said the accident made it a difficult time for the community and for police in the area - coming so soon after the crash in the Ruahine Ranges.
Police are already busy in the area - the crash site is just one block away from where Feilding farmer Scott Guy was shot dead a fortnight ago.
Chief Investigator Tim Burfoot says investigators will be there for several days before a four to six month investigation is conducted.
Burfoot says possible recommendations will be made following the investigation.
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