Hawkes Bay and East Coast Aero Club president Bruce Govenlock says the deaths of his friend and a UK pilot in today's plane crash were a "terrible tragedy''.

Hastings' Mayor has criticized the sentence of a local man who broke his baby daughter's legs and was released from prison after little more than 12 months.

A man accused of sexually assaulting an 87-year-old Hastings woman in her home has had an interim name suppression order further extended.