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Fox Glacier crash victim, pilot Chaminda Senadhira - Source: Facebook -
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The names of the nine people killed in the plane crash at Fox Glacier yesterday have now been released.
The pilot was 33-year-old Chaminda Senadhira from Queenstown.
The four dive-masters from Skydive New Zealand were Australian Adam Bennett (47) who has been living in Motueka, Michael Suter (32) from New Plymouth, Christopher McDonald (62) from Mapua and Rodney Miller (55) from Greymouth.
The four tourists who died were Patrick Byrne (26) of Ireland, Glenn Bourke, 18, of Australia, Annita Kirsten (23) from Germany and Brad Coker (24) from England.
Investigators were heading to the scene of the crash today.
The fixed-wing aircraft, belonging to Skydiving New Zealand, caught fire after takeoff from an airstrip at Fox Glacier around 1.30pm yesterday.
Yesterday the owners of a house near where the plane crashed told ONE News they feared for their own lives.
They said the plane had risen steeply and they became concerned when they saw it veering towards their house. They had decided to run for their lives thinking it would hit their house, when it plummeted into the ground bursting into flames.
The weather at the time was fine.
Matt Ewen, general manager of Tourism West Coast told ONE News yeterday nothing like this had happened before in the area.
"I know the owners, they are very nice people and this is a tragedy for them. Fox only has about 200 people in the community and it is in shock.
"The operators are very experienced and the company has a very good safety record."
He said Fox Glacier runway has had no issues in the past.
Yesterday's crash was the first aviation accident of this magnitude in New Zealand since the Air Adventures accident claimed eight lives in 2003.