At least 10 dead as private jet crashes into vehicles on Malaysia highway

Flight with eight peple on board crashes while attempting to land

At least 10 people were killed after a small private plane crashed onto moving vehicles on a highway in Malaysia's central Selangor state.

The Beechcraft Model 390 aircraft was carrying six passengers and two crew when it crashed near Elmina township after 2pm(local time) on Thursday, while attempting to land at an airport on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

All eight people on board the aircraft along with two passing motorists died in the crash, the authorities said.

The plane had obtained approval to land at Subang airport after departing from the northern resort island of Langkawi, transport minister Anthony Loke said. He added that the aircraft then veered off its flight path and plunged towards the ground.

The craft lost contact with air traffic control and crashed into a motorbike and a car, Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan said.

"There was no emergency call, the aircraft had been given clearance to land," he added.

The aircraft made first contact with Subang air traffic control tower at 2.47pm local time and was given landing clearance at 2.48 pm, according to civil aviation authority chief executive Norazman Mahmud.

Seconds before a small plane came crashing down on a highway in Malaysia (Screen grab/ Twitter )

“At 2.51pm, the Subang air traffic control tower observed smoke originating from the crash site but no mayday call was made by the aircraft,” he said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Officials inspect the site after an aircraft crashed into a motorway in Malaysia (EPA)

Dashcam video from a number of passing vehicles showed the aircraft exploding into a fireball after hitting the edge of the highway.

Authorities inspect the scene of a plane crash in Shah Alam, Malaysia (REUTERS)

Eyewitnesses recall being jolted by a deafening noise followed by thick black smoke billowing from the crash site.

"I heard a loud explosion and as soon as I reached the site, I saw a person in flames on the ground," Nur Alia Nordin, a local resident, told the national Bernama news agency. "I saw a motorcycle and a plane on fire."

Members of the fire and rescue department inspect the crash site of a small plane in Shah Alam district (AP)

According to reports, a local politician was one of the eight people killed onboard, but Malaysian authorities have refused to identify the dead pending forensic test results.

Mr Khan on Friday said the cockpit voice recorder was collected by the Air Accident Investigation Bureau and sent for analysis.

Family and relatives react at the scene of light aircraft crash in Elmina, state of Selangor, Malaysia (EPA)

“We have also found 10 bodies and five body parts. This means we have completed our search for the victims,” he told reporters.

The remains have been sent to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital for autopsy, he added.