Air crash investigators waiting for tide to recede in Raglan before examining wreckage of light plane

The mangled wreck has been anchored in the Waikato harbour since yesterday afternoon, although emergency services have pulled the bodies of passenger and pilot from the craft.

Eyewitnesses describe the plane careening unusually through the sky, and then apparently plummeting straight down - landing with barely a tyre-mark in the sand.

Civil Aviation Authority investigators are expected on the scene at low tide.