KEY POINTS:
A small, fixed wing plane crashed in Canterbury today, killing its two occupants.
They were Mexican citizens who were in New Zealand to train with the Canterbury Aero Club.
Both held private pilot licences and one was preparing to sit part of a commercial licence test tomorrow.
The flight they were on today was a final practice run for the cross-country test where a pilot must navigate between two points.
The plane, a Piper Cherokee, had departed from Hokitika and was due to arrive at Christchurch around midday.
Shortly after 1pm it was reported missing and a search and rescue operation was launched in the area of the plane's last reported position, about 16km north west of Lake Coleridge.
Searchers called in the Westpac Trust Rescue Helicopter and three fixed wing planes.
"The plane was found by a Canterbury Aero Club fixed wing aircraft that we were using to help with the search.
He called the rescue helicopter and asked them to investigate what looked like some wreckage in a valley," said Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand's John Dickson.
"The helicopter was able to land 100m from the wreckage and a paramedic was able to establish that, regretfully, there were no survivors."
The Civil Aviation Authority will head to the site tomorrow to begin an investigation into the crash.
"We have really got no indication of what has caused it. We do know it was near perfect flying conditions, so why it crashed, we don't know," Mr Dickson said.
Southern police communications said the pilots' bodies would be recovered tomorrow.
Police are in the process of contacting their families.
- NZPA
