Local spoke with plane crash victim | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Rotorua's Keith Gallaher talked to Skydive NZ director Rodney Miller the day before he died.

"He was still winding me up about having a better place to skydive," the NZONE Rotorua operations manager told The Daily Post.

"He was always telling me that Fox Glacier was the best place to skydive."

Nine people including Mr Miller, 55, four other New Zealanders and four tourists died when their plane crashed in Fox Glacier on Saturday, the worst aviation disaster in New Zealand in 17 years.

Mr Gallaher said he was in shock when he was told about the crash 30 minutes after it happened.

He said Mr Miller, who he'd known for 20 years, called him on Friday.

Mr Gallaher said Mr Miller had not expressed any concerns to him and was talking about how he was looking forward to the summer.

"We probably spoke once every two weeks ... It's just a friendship that developed through skydiving."

Mr Miller had visited Rotorua and skydived here but still thought Fox Glacier was better, Mr Gallaher said.

He said New Zealand's skydiving community was very close and now in shock.

"We were just in utter shock up and down the country."

He said he wasn't feeling that emotionally stable after seeing the earthquake in Christchurch that morning as his parents used to live there.

The day turned even worse when hearing about the crash.

He said the mood among staff at work on Sunday was sombre.

Although people had skydived on Sunday there were no jumps yesterday due to the wet weather which may have been a good thing.

"It has been pretty hard to focus," Mr Gallaher said.

Mr Gallaher said he also knew one of the other people on board, Christopher McDonald, 62, from Mapua, whom he had known for about 10 years.

Mr Gallaher, who is the chief executive of the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association, said people should still have confidence in the skydiving industry.

He said every skydiving operation in New Zealand would have been checking their planes and systems following the crash - a natural reaction to what had happened.

"We don't want this to happen anywhere else. This is the first one of this size."

He said he was interested to see how the crash happened.

"We want to know just as much as they [the investigators] do."

Mr Gallaher said he was not sure when Mr Miller's funeral would be but he would be attending it.

Staff at Taupo's three skydiving companies were also in shock yesterday.

Taupo Tandem Skydiving manager Hamish Funnell said he knew Mr Miller and the pilot of the plane Chaminda Senadhira, 33.

He said Mr Senadhira was very well liked and his death would be a big loss to the skydiving community.

Mr Funnell said he had met the two men three to four years ago and saw them about once a year at skydiving events.

Mr Funnell said he planned to go to the funerals of both men if he was able to.

The co-owner of the other two skydiving companies in Taupo, Freefall and Skydive Taupo, Tony Green, said he'd known Mr Miller for a number of years.

"This will be a devastating blow to the entire skydiving community.

"It's the first time we have suffered anything like this."

He said the mood among his 25 staff was sombre.

Mr Green would be attending Mr Miller's funeral.