Trainer aircraft crash in Taiwan kills two

A light trainer aircraft plunged into a lagoon in Pingtung county in southern Taiwan killing both people on board, officials said on Monday.

Pingtung county fire service department said the S-6 PA 2002 light trainer aircraft crashed into the waters off Dapeng Bay at about 10.40 a.m. around half an hour after takeoff, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescue workers were at the scene about 10 minutes after the accident, according to the fire department.

Pilot Ko Ming-siu, 50, and the 30-year-old trainee, Yang, located in the water the water but were showing no signs of life. They were taken to hospitals nearby, according to the fire department.

Registered in Taiwan in February 2007, the US-manufactured ultralight aircraft is used for training and tourism purposes.

Also on Monday, a TH-67 military helicopter collided with another helicopter on the apron of a military base in Tainan city during training, damaging the tail rotors of both aircraft but there were no casualties, according to media reports.

TransAsia Airways flight ATR72-600 aircraft with 58 people on board crashed in Taipei last month, killing 43 people. Another ATR 72 aircraft, owned by the same company, crashed in July 2014, killing 48 of the 58 people on board.

Taiwan's aviation authority has started an investigating into the crash.