The names of the nine victims of a fiery explosion at Fox Glacier have been revealed, after their plane crashed shortly after take-off on a routine tandem skydiving outing on Saturday afternoon.

The pilot was 33-year-old Chaminda Senadhira from Queenstown, TVNZ reported.

The four dive-masters from Skydive New Zealand were Australian Adam Bennett (47) who has been living in Motueka, Michael Suter (32) from New Plymouth, Christopher McDonald (62) from Mapua and Rodney Miller (55) from Greymouth.

The four tourists who died were Patrick Byrne (26) of Ireland, Glenn Bourke (18) of Australia, Annita Kirsten (23) from Germany and Brad Coker (24) from England.

The Fletcher fixed wing aircraft crashed just 50m from the back door of the chief fire officer’s home, nzherald.co.nz reported.

The aircraft, which was owned by Skydive NZ, veered from its trajectory only seconds after take-off, crashing and exploding in a paddock next to the runway.

"It had banked and was heading straight towards our house," Fox Glacier's chief fire officer, John Sullivan said.

"It burst into flames on impact … It brings a whole new meaning to ‘too close to home’."

Mr Sullivan recalled running to the site and searching for signs of survivors before returning to the station to gather the fire crew.

Civil Aviation Authority communications manager Bill Sommer said the Transport Accident Investigation Commission would investigate the crash, noting that it was too early to say what may have happened.

The plane crash is New Zealand's worst air disaster in nearly 17 years, since nine people were killed near the west coast's other iconic glacier, Franz Josef.