The plane that crashed into the sea off the Waikato coast, killing 2degrees chief executive Eric Hertz and his wife Kathy, has broken into pieces on the seabed, divers have discovered.
The couple's bodies were believed to be trapped in the wreckage of the upside-down plane, 56m below the surface.
Nearly a week after the crash divers were yesterday able to reach the site, Waikato Police operations manager Inspector John Kelly said.
"What was achieved yesterday was the completion of a first exploratory dive where we were able to get real time images of the aircraft on the ocean floor.
"These images enable us to direct the recovery operation, for instance from sonar imagery we were able to locate the aircraft but the initial dive revealed the aircraft is not intact, presenting us with a number of challenges."
To overcome these challenges the police and Civil Aviation Authority accident investigators were relying heavily on the expertise and advice of the Royal New Zealand Navy who were on site with a dive support vessel, HMNZS Manawanui, and the Royal New Zealand Navy Operational Dive Team (ODT).
The ODT Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Trevor Leslie said divers remained on site overnight and would be conducting further dives today - but the dives weren't without some risk.
"The environmental conditions faced by the team include various sized swells, strong bottom currents and significantly reduced visibility below the surface, these conditions combined with diver entanglement hazards and the inherent risks associated with diving to this depth are some of the challenges facing the ODT divers," he said.
Meanwhile, boaties have been asked to stay 500m from the crash site near Gannet Island.
Incident controller, Sergeant Warren Shaw, of the Waikato Police search and rescue squad, said one of the challenges faced by the team was determining whether Mr and Mrs Hertz remained on the plane.
"To be able to do this successfully we need to be able to conduct our operation unhindered so we're asking boaties and masters of vessels to ensure they respect the 500m radius exclusion zone around the crash site off Gannet Island."
Mr Shaw said while the recovery was going on, local iwi had placed a rahui on the area.
"This is a mark of respect for those in the water and requires people to refrain from carrying out any action in that water and is in synergy with the objectives of our operation.
"Because the plane is upside down we haven't been able to confirm the location of the bodies. To that end police need to have a range of contingencies in place so in the worst case scenario, if they aren't, we can locate them."
The team's priority was recover Mr and Mrs Hertz "in an as dignified manner as possible", Mr Shaw said.
The couple had been on their way to visit their daughter in Dunedin when their plane ditched at high speed last Saturday.
