The two planes, a Piper Seminole twin-engine registered to Moorabbin Aviation Services and a Beechcraft Travel Air D95A registered to the Peninsula Aero Club, collided in mid-air near Mangalore Airport on Wednesday morning.
The Moorabbin Aviation Services aircraft took off from Mangalore Airport just after 11.20 am on Wednesday, and had been in the air for about three or four minutes prior to the collision.
Investigators have confirmed the two occupants of the aircraft were a 27-year-old woman from Melbourne West and a 79-year-old man from Maiden Gully.
Emergency services later discovered the aircraft on property belonging to the Thales Australia ammunition facility on Seymour-Avenel Rd, Mangalore.
The Peninsula Aero Club aircraft had taken off earlier that morning from Tyabb, a town east of Mornington in Victoria, and was descending towards Mangalore.
Police confirmed the aircraft had a 30-year-old man from Cheltenham and a 47-year-old man from Seaford on board.
The aircraft took off from the Tyabb Airport about 10.55 am before colliding with the other plane about 4000 feet, landing on a private property on Lambing Gully Rd, Avenel.
It is understood the two victims were Peninsula Aero Club chief flying instructor Pete Phillips and experienced airman Ido Segev, who was seated in the cockpit for a training flight.
Following the collision friends of Mr Segev took to Facebook to pay tribute to the pilot who was described as "an enthusiastic and very skilled pilot".
“Ido loved his life in aviation and it showed in everything he did . . . (he was) a multi-talented pilot,” Australian Flying said in a post on its Facebook page.
Mr Segev was also described as "a world champion RC pilot" and a "passionate and promising pilot with a bright future ahead of him.”
His instructor on board, Mr Phillips, was described by colleagues as a "real mentor".
“(Peter) gave me words of inspiration when everyone else said give up, and was absolutely instrumental in my achieving all that I did in aviation,” a Peninsula Aero Club member said on Facebook.
Mitchel Police Local Area Inspector Peter Koger confirmed one of the victims was a Thai national and another was a dual citizen from Israel.
In a press conference held yesterday, Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Transport Safety executive director Nat Nagy said six transport safety investigators arrived at the scene yesterday morning to commence the field phase of the investigation.
“Investigators are starting to piece together what happened and will do a sight survey using aerial and ground mapping, examining wreckage and trying to retrieve any personal electronics,” he said.
“We are also speaking to air traffic control and getting data such as radar and audio recordings to see exactly where the aircraft were in the lead-up and at the time of the collision.”
Mr Nagy said the ATSB were also speaking with the bureau of meteorology to estimates of what the cloud cover was like at the time.
“There is no air traffic control at Mangalore airport, however there are responsibilities around how aircraft are made aware of each other. The primary means is for the pilots to speak to one another while in the air,” he said.
“There is no indication that either pilot was at fault at this stage.”
An update on the investigation will be provided after 30 days, however the ATSB confirmed it can take 12 to 18 months to pull everything together.
Both crash scenes will remain intact while investigators piece together the evidence.
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