Beijing - The body of a South African was pulled from a lake in central China after the micro-light aircraft he was flying crashed in poor weather on Friday, a Chinese aviation official and state media said.
The pilot, who was accompanied by another in a separate micro-light, ditched in Lake Dongting in Hunan province after being refused permission to land at Changsa airport in the province's capital because of the weather, the official told reporters.
A two-man team travelling the world in micro-lights known as trikes - a feat in celebration of 10 years of democracy in South Africa - were scheduled to be in the area.
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"The body was discovered by patrol crafts in the lake areas close to the city of Miluo in Hunan," Xinhua news agency said.
Neither Xinhua nor the official identified the South African. Xinhua said he had been flying on a global charity mission.
Xinhua said nearly 1 000 rescuers hunted for the pilot's aircraft but had to call off the search towards nightfall on Friday because of poor visibility. It identified the craft as an Aquilla, a type of trike.
"The aircraft should have landed at Changsha, but the weather was too bad and he continued on his route to Wuhan. We searched for the aircraft for five to six hours," aviation official Huang Suihua told reporters earlier on Friday.
"There was no one else on board," he said. "The plane was flying with another South African aircraft which alerted us to the disappearance (of the other craft)," he said. - Sapa-AFP
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