Police and the Civil Aviation Authority are investigating after a light aircraft crashed near Ermelo in Mpumalanga earlier today.

Currently, information about the circumstances of the crash is vague.

Captain Carla Prinsloo, Ermelo police spokesperson, says the accident happened at around 07:00, shortly after the pilot took off.

Prinsloo says preliminary information indicates that the pilot was underway from Bethlehem in the Free State to Malawi.

The name of the deceased has not been made public yet.

The Highvelder’s sister publication, the Carletonville Herald, reported about an incident last week where a plane had to make an emergency landing after the pilot noted a mechanical fault shortly after takeoff. None of the four persons onboard was injured.

In a separate incident in Carletonville, a Cessna with Casper Botha and his wife Estelle, and an air tractor crop duster, flown by Hennie Viviers (63), collided killing all three people. The incident happened on the farm Arena in December 29.