Two people have been confirmed dead after a fiery plane crash in a park near Fielding town centre.
Emergency services were called after witnesses reported a small plane going down in Timona Park to the east of the town centre at 10:46am.
Initial reports were that at least one person had been found dead in the "mangled" wreckage of the Aerostar Yak 52TW.
Inspector Ken Climo said authorities had now confirmed two bodies were at the crash site. No further details about the deceased were available.
Per Madie, who lives on a road bordering the park, said he heard a loud explosion when the plane went down.
"I heard it, and I thought it was a gas container that had blown up. It was just one sound.''
After a phone call from his neighbour, he headed out to the park to see the wreck of the aircraft partially buried in the ground.
"It's just a heap of wrangled metal. Most of it is underground. If one can imagine it's coming full force into the ground, then the front of it is buried.''
The aircraft crashed dead centre in the middle of Timona Park, he said.
Mr Madie said an explosive fire had burnt out the entire plane, leaving it a blackened shell.
Any marking or details on the plane were burnt off in the blaze, he said.
"It's all burnt. It blew up on impact. It's just black, mangled metal. There's nothing left whatsoever, you wouldn't think it was an aircraft.
"It looks as if it was one big explosion when it hit the ground, and that's the end of it.''
Gayleen Smith, who lives near the crash site, said she was cleaning her windows when she heard the loud sound of a failing engine overhead.
That was followed by a "humongous" explosion as the plane crashed into the park.
"I thought 'there's been a plane crash in the school grounds' next door. It was so loud this engine - it sounded so damn close. Then the explosion was humungous."
A Fire Service spokesman said officers would remain at the scene to help if they were needed to extricate the body from the wreckage.
Feilding was also the site of a fatal collision between two Cessnas flown by students on July 26, 2010.
Flying student Patricia Smallman, 64, and flight instructor Jess Neeson, 27, were killed in the accident while a 21-year-old international student at the controls of a second plane managed to land safely at Feilding Aerodrome despite a dead engine and a missing wheel.
- Hayden Donnell and APNZ
