The two people who died when a light aircraft crashed into a field near Rotterdam were a 79-year-old man from Zevenhoven and a 60-year-old man from Leiden, police have confirmed.

The accident happened about 15 minutes after the Cessna Reims F172N Skyhawk plane took off from Rotterdam The Hague airport on Tuesday morning.

Witnesses said the aircraft was flying low and hit a tree before landing in a field in Bergambacht. Police said on Wednesday that the investigation would take several weeks. Nobody else was on board at the time.

Local residents told AD this week that the area was used for ‘test flights’, where pilots switch off the engine and drift before turning it on again.

The aircraft in question was involved in an earlier crash in 2012 in which no one was hurt. Rotterdam-based Sand Air, which owns the plane, declined to comment.