THE two men who tragically died in a light plane crash south of Brisbane yesterday have been identified.

Matthew Furlong, a 31-year-old flying instructor from Sydney, was teaching his 25-year-old student Jeffrey Li when the plane started to spiral out of control and nosedive into a field.

Police later confirmed the plane was in the middle of making a mayday call when it crashed.

Mr Li was a Hong Kong trainee pilot and, according to South China Morning Post, was flying the single engine plane when it crashed.

The 25-year-old moved to Brisbane in July to train at Flylink Aviation College, a college that specialises in training Chinese student pilots and where Mr Furlong was working as an instructor.

A Facebook post from Flylink Aviation College on August 22 had congratualed Mr Li on his first solo flight.

According to Mr Furlong’s bio on Sydney Aviators, his former employer, the avid pilot had hoped to work as an instructor for two to three years before scoring a job as an international pilot.

Police originally asked that the victims not be identified as they were trying to locate the families.

According to the Courier Mail, Mr Furlong’s wife of two years has been informed.

Emergency services were called to the crash on Brookland Road at Allenview in the Scenic Rim just before 10am on Tuesday.

The single engine plane, identified as a Diamond DA40, was less than 10 years old and was significantly damaged after it crashed into the field of a turf farm.

Farm workers rushed to save the two people inside after a fuel leak was reported however no fire came from the leak.

Paramedics confirmed they were both dead and did not take anyone to hospital.

At least six ambulances and two fire trucks were photographed responding to the scene.

It is understood no one else was injured or involved in the crash — only the two people in the plane.

Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are examining the crash site.

The team of investigators are expected to take days observing the crash site, the wreckage, interviewing witnesses and retrieving flight data from the plane.

Police said the investigation is in its “very early stages” and a report explaining what happened is expected to take months.

The plane crash is Queensland’s second in less than a week.

Last Wednesday on September 20, gliding instructor Jeremy Thompson, 62, died when the aircraft he was piloting crashed shortly after taking off from the Darling Downs Soaring Club at Bowenville, a town west of Brisbane.

Mr Thompson had been instructing Norman Gross, a 60-year-old man from Airlie Beach on his third glider lesson.

In a tragic turn of events, Mr Thompson’s wife Jenny was the one who had been piloting the plane that lifted the glider into the air.

His wife saw the whole crash happen with the two men being pronounced dead at the scene.