The name of the man who died in light plane crash at Marsden Cove in Whangarei has been released.

Witnesses say 27-year-old Stacy Jarrod Hopper's plane was in the air for only a few hundred metres after take-off, when it apparently hit a wind gust. One of the aircraft's wings dipped, clipping a parked car and the plane flew a further 100 metres before hitting the ground at One Tree Point.

Two people who were in the car suffered minor cuts from flying glass from the windscreen.

Mr Hopper was a project manager for his family's property development firm Hooper Developments, which is based in Orewa.