Police say all 13 people aboard the plane survived after it appeared to stall and crashed into Lake Taupo on the North Island

In an escape worthy of Houdini, all 13 people aboard a New Zealand skydiving plane managed to parachute to safety just moments before it plunged into a lake, apparently from engine failure.

Police said there were six passengers, six crew and a pilot aboard the plane operated by Skydive Taupo. All landed safely after a trip that could have ended in disaster.



Each of the crew members dived in tandem with one of the passengers as they abandoned the aircraft, said police. The pilot also bailed out safely.

“(I) saw everyone deploy out of the plane and then the next minute it was in the lake, parachuting down slowly. I think the pilot must have been the last one to get out because he ended up in the blackberries [bushes],” said Bevan Johnhill, who witnessed the incident.

Robbie Graham, an artist who works at the Wildwood art gallery in the town of Waitahanui, said he was standing in front of the gallery when he saw several people parachuting above the lake about 1km (0.6 miles) away. He said he did not see the plane crash.

“I saw all these people coming down, and I thought that was a crazy place to be coming down, that they would all end up in the lake,” he said.

Graham said the area is popular for skydiving but most people typically leap out of planes a few miles to the north, near Taupo airport and above dry land. He said the parachutists were about 200m above the water when he saw them. Roy Clements, chief executive of Skydive Taupo, said the escape was nothing short of a miracle.

“... Both the pilot and all the instructors are heroic,” he said. “That is what they’ve been trained to deal with, emergency situations, and they’ve all dealt with this in the best possible way.”

Clements said the plane had an engine problem shortly after takeoff. Transport authorities were on their way to the crash site to begin an investigation, he added.

“It’s apparently in quite shallow water close to the shore and we’ve got a salvage team on its way out there now to help get the wreckage out,” said a spokesman for the New Zealand transport accident investigation commission. “We’ll get it down to here in Wellington where we can do an inspection of it.”

On its website, Skydive Taupo offers skydives from up to 4,500m taking in a minute of freefall: “You shimmy to the door until your feet are dangling over the edge. 3...2...1. out you go!!!!!” the company’s site says.

It was unclear whether any of those aboard landed their parachutes in the water or whether they all managed to land on the shore. Police initially said the pilot landed in the water and swam ashore, but a spokeswoman said more recent information indicated the pilot landed on the shore.

Lake Taupo is popular among holidaymakers and tourists at this time of year, when it is summer in the southern hemisphere. Skydivers can enjoy coast to coast views, snow-capped volcanoes of the Tongariro national park and Lake Taupo itself.