The wife of a man who went missing in his bi-plane in March says news that wreckage and a body have been found by a fishing trawler and brought back to Auckland is a huge relief.
The homemade light plane was brought to the surface by a trawler off the coast of Great Barrier Island on Thursday morning.
The family of the 53-year-old pilot, Dariosh Kraidy, have been told by the police of the find.
His wife, Judy Kraidy, said the body was yet to be formally identified but she described the discovery as a miracle.
Mrs Kraidy told Checkpoint that the family said their farewells at a wake in May but now with a body they can do it properly, which is a huge relief.
The aircraft was found off the coast of Great Barrier Island, and transported back to Auckland's Marine Rescue Centre.
A photo of the missing plane from TradeMe. Photo: Trade Me
That home-built aerobatic biplane and its pilot disappeared from radar late on the morning of Tuesday 25 March, minutes after taking off from Ardmore airfield south of Auckland, and heading north-east towards the Hauraki Gulf.
A Rescue Coordination Centre coordinator, Geoff Lunt, said at the time that no one knew what happened after that, and several air searches by a rescue helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft.around the Coromandel Peninsula were unsuccessful.
At one point, a police squad made a sonar search of an area 400m off the coast from New Chums Beach in Wainuiototo Bay.
