Funeral for pilot at club hangar | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Stace Hopper, the pilot killed in a plane crash at Marsden Cove, will be farewelled at a funeral service in the North Shore Aero Club hangar at the North Shore Airfield at Albany on Wednesday.

An announcement about the burial or cremation arrangements which will follow the 3pm service is expected to be made after a Hopper family meeting today.

Whangarei police acting sergeant Nick de Ridder said he believed the body of 27-year-old Stace Hopper had been taken to Auckland for an autopsy.

The fatal crash happened at about 4pm on Friday. A coroner's hearing will  be held into the death.

Civil Aviation Authority experts combed the wreckage of the plane on Saturday, looking for evidence of the cause of the accident, which witnesses said seemed to have been the result of windy conditions.

CAA communications manager Bill Sommer said officials would examine all aspects of the crash, including the condition of the aircraft, the pilot's training and the weather.

It could take nine months to a year before the CAA produced a final report on the cause of the accident, he said.

"In these situations we are not looking at getting it done quickly, we are looking at getting it right."

Paul Shanahan, marketing manager for the Marsden Cove marina project headed by Stace Hopper, said the dead man's parents, Leigh and Gwen Hopper, his younger brother Gray and sister Shana, and others close to the family were grieving at Orewa yesterday. The parents and both sons have homes in the Hibiscus Coast town.

Stace Hopper's girlfriend for about the past two years, Gracie Murphy, is also struggling with the fatality, which took place while he was taking off from Marsden Cove to fly to Auckland.

The Northern Advocate was told soon after the crash that Stace was flying a Russian Yak aircraft, but he was actually at the controls of another Hopper family-owned plane, a Cessna 120.

Mr Shanahan said Leigh Hopper was deeply affected by the family tragedy. He felt responsible for encouraging his eldest son to follow his interests in flying and rally driving.

Mr Shanahan said Stace Hopper was a very able pilot who had not been  making any apparently dangerous manoeuvres when the crash occurred.

"His brother Gray - who is also a pilot - saw the crash. He suspected a strong gust of wind pushed the plane to one side and after its wing clipped a van it was obviously in trouble."

Stace Hopper was alone in the  Cessna. Marsden Cove construction manager Simon Kirkpatrick's 10-year-old son was reportedly in a vehicle when it was struck by the plane, but was uninjured.

Stace Hopper was being groomed by his father to take over the Hopper family coastal development business, best known for its marina residential projects at Pauanui and Whitianga.

The National Business Review estimated the family was worth $120 million in 2008.