A passenger rescued from a light plane which crash landed near Lake Eyre in the remote South Australian outback says he feels lucky to be safe and well.

Ben Francis and pilot Darryl Koch were returning from a scenic flight over the lake when engine failure forced the sudden landing.

Mr Francis said there was no time to make a decision and they needed to ditch the plane.

"All it was, was getting the plane on the ground in a safe formation and to his credit, Darryl did that," he said.

"That was the biggest thing I think, the fact that we were both not injured and yeah, able-bodied."

Mr Francis said it was a slightly bumpy landing but they were both safe.

"[It was] just on a stony rise ... it was a little bit soft after the recent rains up here so it pulled up pretty quick," he said.

"We jumped out because we thought we might have had a fire and thankfully we didn't.

"Then after that we went through the process of getting the ELT [emergency locator transmitter] to work, so they could find our location and went about making ourselves comfortable basically for the night ahead."

Mr Francis said the pair had a bumpy landing. ( ABC News )

The duo spent the night sleeping on their plane seats, in between scanning channel frequencies.

"Not knowing whether anyone knew we were out there was probably our biggest concern and also thinking about our loved ones back home," Mr Francis said.

"Obviously there were going to know that we were out there somewhere and yeah, that was our main concerns.

Marree's only police officer Tom Christley and Rebecca Turner from the Marree Hotel both helped with the search. ( ABC News: Tom Fedorowytsch )

"All night it was quite warm so we didn't have any exposure dramas or anything."

As dawn broke Mr Francis said they heard some aircraft activity in the area and knew a search was underway.

"We just kept scanning the channels for local frequency, every now and then we'd just switch it on and make a call," he said.

The pair set fire to a tyre and the smoke was spotted by local tourism pilot Trevor Wright, who made radio contact with the helicopter that picked the men up.

"Darryl was actually walking back from going to get some water ... so he was happy to hear the news when he got back too," Mr Francis said.

He said given the circumstances, they were lucky to be uninjured and safe.

"[There was] relief that we're all safe and well and our families all know that we're well," he said.

Emergency highlights need for better mobile coverage

Tourists have been flocking to Lake Eyre to see the usually dry salt pan filling with water.

Mr Wright said the emergency highlighted the need for better mobile coverage in outback areas, and wants government to help with improvements.

Downpours in South Australia's outback in recent days have led to Lake Eyre filling. Photo taken January 2, 2016. ( Supplied: Trevor Wright )

"We've had four search and rescues in four weeks. Two of them were [for people from] overseas, two were Australian. The longest one went for 30 hours," he said.

"Had we had mobile phone coverage or towers with data, the chances are with the communications, we would have picked up a lot of them quicker and made the exposure to risk a lot less."

But Mr Wright praised the efforts of the pair, saying they had done everything by the book.

"They did a great job. When you have a catastrophic engine failure at 2,000 feet you don't have a lot of time to think about things," he said.

"They went through their checks, they landed in an area that was safe."

Rebecca Turner from the Marree Hotel said while the region was remote, people would be safe if they came prepared, which the duo had done.

"We always encourage people to travel with lots of water, make sure that they've got appropriate communications, there's lots of different devices you can use to track where you are," she said.

"[We're] always relieved when we know people are safe and well and it's the best outcome for everyone concerned."