A man has been taken to hospital after a light plane crashed at Heatherton, in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs.
Victoria Police said the plane crashed into trees shortly after take-off from Moorabbin Airport.
The pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, suffered serious injuries when the plane crashed on vacant land near Old Dandenong Road.
Witness Abel Teke said he was driving a truck out of a nearby quarry when he looked up through his windshield and noticed the plane.
"I thought to myself, 'Jeez, that's a bit too low'," he said.
"And then next minute, it clipped a tree and nose first, straight into the ground there."
Mr Teke and his workmates then called emergency services and rushed to the scene to help the pilot.
"I was worried a little bit because there was smoke coming out, but we got the fire extinguisher," he said.
He said they kept speaking to the pilot to keep him awake and stopped him moving about before paramedics arrived, in case he had suffered spinal injuries.
Mr Teke said he had never witnessed a plane crash before and it was "a bit of a traumatic thing to see".
"Hopefully he gets better real soon," he said.
Victoria Police said the cause of the crash was not yet known and the investigation was ongoing.
