The scene of a fatal glider accident on the Bombay Hills
The man, believed to be in his 50s, was dead in his aircraft when witnesses arrived at the crash scene near Nikau Rd in the Bombay Hills, south of Auckland, about 4pm yesterday.
His name has yet to be released.
Witnesses told the New Zealand Herald the glider may have hit power lines before it slid down a gully, hit a fence and flipped upside down.
Craig Andrews said the glider crashed 100 metres from where he was building a house and he was the first to arrived at the wreckage.
He said there was nothing they could do for the pilot. The machine had turned flipped over in the impact.
"We tipped it back up but we didn't try to take him out. I think he would have died on impact," he said.
