A light aircraft that went missing in the Midlands yesterday has been located.

Bad weather hampered search-and-rescue efforts over the entire search area for the missing plane that crashed sometime last night.

Northern Natal News reports that the crash site, between Ladysmith and Pietermaritzburg near uMshwathi Municipality, has been found. There are no survivors.

SAPS search-and-rescue is on the scene.

The plane – a Piper Cherokee that was part of a training flight from Virginia Airfield in Durban involving three aircraft – went missing after aborting an attempted landing to refuel at Ladysmith Airfield in KZN. It is believed that the plane turned back to either make a landing in Greytown or Pietermaritzburg. All contact was lost with the plane shortly afterwards.

A second plane, which also failed to land, crash-landed near Greytown. Fortunately, no one was injured.

The third plane, which was the lead plane, successfully landed in Ladysmith, refuelled and continued to Pretoria.

The planes had intended to stop over in Ladysmith to refuel before continuing to Pretoria.

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