Police have named the man who died after a light plane crash in the Coromandel Peninsula on Friday.
He was James Albert Evans, who was 78, of Whitianga.
He was the sole occupant of the plane which took off from Whitianga Airport early on Friday morning but failed to arrive at Ardmore Airport, near Manurewa and was declared overdue late that afternoon.
Police worked with searchers to locate the plane which was found at about 10am yesterday, but they found the pilot dead.