A young pilot and his passenger are in critical condition after the light plane they hired for a sightseeing flight suffered suspected engine failure and crashed southwest of Sydney.
The male pilot, 24, and his female passenger, 23, hired the 1977 single-engine Piper plane at Camden Airport on Thursday morning for a one-hour private flight.
"It's just a club member doing a normal everyday flight," Ben Holloway of the Phoenix Flying School told AAP after the crash.
"Just local sightseeing around Camden."
NSW Police say the plane suffered engine failure shortly after taking off from the airport and crash-landed in a paddock in a residential area off Macquarie Grove Rd, at Kirkham, about 11.20am.
The injured pair was rescued by the crew of a police helicopter on a training exercise, which landed at the crash site to assist. No one else was in the four-seater plane.
Fire and Rescue NSW sprayed a "foam blanket" over the plane after the incident.
The pilot was treated at the scene for facial, head and limb injuries while the woman was treated for a limb injury, a NSW Ambulance spokesperson said.
They were taken to Liverpool Hospital where they remain in critical but stable condition.
The plane crashed on the property of Kris Kellner, Fairfax Media reports.
She and her family were boarding a holiday cruise ship when a friend called to tell her about the incident.
"We are not sure of the damage (to the property) yet," Ms Kellner said, adding a foal in the paddock where the plane came down jumped the fence when it was spooked by the crash.
