Napier Airport was closed for three hours this morning when a privately owned jet had to do a "wheels up" landing.
The pilot of the BAC Strikemaster, who was the only person on board, notified air traffic control at Napier the jet didn't have landing gear around 8am.
The runway was closed while the jet made the forced landing, a Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson told 3 News.
A nearby taxi driver watched from afar as the incident unfolded.
"I heard the siren go off and the fore tender take off and I didn't know what was happening at that stage," says taxi driver Steve Glasspole.
"It was just sitting on the deck down the end of the runway.
"Closed down the airport for a while, a lot of people's flights were disrupted that's for sure."
There were no injuries but two Air New Zealand flights had to be diverted.
Napier Airport re-opened at 11am.
Strikemaster jets are a training and light attack aircraft first built by the British Aircraft Corporation in 1967.
The jet can take two people and has a maximum speed of 760 km/h and a range of 2700 km.
3 News
