Crash facts

Where: Hillside above Cwmbran When: 1245 GMT Who: Two people Fatalities: Both How: Unknown Plane: Piper PA38 Tomahawk light aircraft Flight: Training exercise Origin: Cardiff Destination: Leominster

It came down shortly after taking off for the Herefordshire town at 1100 GMT.

Three police forces helped the search for the plane and an RAF Sea King helicopter flew to the scene at the disused Blaenbran reservoir, where the two people where pronounced dead.

Gwent Police superintendent David Wormald said in a statement: "At 1245 GMT, a civilian light aircraft, on what was believed to have been a routine flight, crashed on a hillside above Cwmbran.

"Police officers and other emergency services are currently at the scene and the Civil Aviation Authority has been informed."

The force had worked with South Wales Police and Dyfed-Powys Police to try and trace the two-seater aircraft.

'Two people'

The two dead will not be identified until their next of kin have been informed - police in Herefordshire have been called in to contact their families.

Mountain rescue teams were called in because the site was passable only by helicopters and their off-road vehicles.

A police spokesman said that difficulty had hampered the rescue operation.

South Wales Fire Service sent a rescue engine, a foam tender and a four-wheeled drive vehicle to the scene.

Eyewitness Phil Harris, a regular at the Queen Inn pub half a mile away said locals had no idea why the plane came down.

"It was pretty good weather if a little grey," he said. "It is a mystery to us how the plane could have crashed.

"As far as we know no-one saw it crash and the wreckage was only discovered later."

A police surgeon at the site confirmed both people in the aircraft were killed in the crash.

A report will be compiled for Gwent coroner David Bowen.