KUALA TERENGGANU: Search and rescue workers on Thursday morning found the two pilots who went missing shortly after their aircraft took off from the Sultan Mahmud airport here on Wednesday.
One pilot was found alive while the other had succumbed to serious injuries.
The trainee pilots were feared missing after they failed to state their altitude or respond to the air traffic controller minutes after taking off.
The pilots, aged 21 and 20, were flying a Diamond Star DA40 aircraft on a training flight from Kuala Terengganu to Langkawi International Airport.
The aircraft belonged to HM Aerospace Flying school.
The flight took off at about 4.23pm from the airport and the pilots were supposed to have radioed the position of their aircraft to the air traffic controller but they failed to do so. OCPD Asst Comm Zamri Shamsuddin said the aircraft was last seen flying at an altitude of 20m and eye-witnesses claimed that they heard the plane's engine which was described as raucous.
Eyewitness Tong Kundang, 32, a machine operator at Bukit Jong quarry in Tepoh, said he witnessed an aircraft flying very low and it looked like it was gliding towards a plantation before it disappeared from his view at about 5pm.
"I knew something was wrong because the aircraft was flying extremely low and it looked unstable,” he said.
The Star - Malaysia