NZ Flight school closes as collision probed

Feilding, NZ: The Manawatu flight training school is closing for a period after a midair collision killed its chief flying instructor and a student.
The school, based near Feilding, was in mourning after two of its aircraft collided yesterday afternoon, causing one to plunge into the ground.
The accident has stunned students and the chief executive at Flight Training Manawatu, Michael Bryant.
The flight school‘s chief flying instructor, Jessica Neeson, 27, was one of the two women who died when the single-engined Cessna training aircraft collided with another from the school.
The school has praised the Indian student who managed to fly his damaged aircraft back to the aerodrome.
He is one of 30 international students at the Feilding-based flying school.
The crash comes just two weeks after another plane crash in the Manawatu which left an instructor and student seriously injured.
The dead student was about halfway through completing her private pilot’s licence, and the sole survivor of the collision had almost completed his commercial pilot’s licence.
The training school doesn’t know what could have been done to prevent the accident.
“You can have all the rules and regulations procedures in place to prevent such an incident. But occasionally things do happen,” said Bryant.
27/07/10 TVNZ, New Zealand