The sole occupant of a sea plane which flipped several hundred metres offshore from the Auckland CBD has made it out of the aircraft safely.
Police and emergecy services rushed to the scene near the Viaduct after being notified of the accident shortly before 11am.
Kay Bramley witnessed the crash with workmates from the 17th floor of a waterfront building.
"I hadn’t seen a seaplane come in today and me and three workmates were talking about it and watched it come in," she said.
"It seemed to come in at a pretty sharp angle to the Harbour Bridge, we saw it hit the water and the nose go under."
"It was quite a fright."
A witness on the waterfront told 1 NEWS he saw the pilot get out of the plane.
Photos showed a ferry and other boats had rushed to assist with the plane nose-down in the water.
Fire and Emergency NZ said a a specialist boat crew was attending and there were two crews at the end of Hamer St near Silo Park.
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