Police have confirmed a possible plane crash in Western Australia's Wheatbelt region did not occur.
After initial reports that a light aircraft went down in the vicinity of Clarke Road at Neergabby, about 80 kilometres north-east of Perth, police, volunteers and SES teams spent hours searching scrub and bushland for what they believed was a missing plane.
Witnesses said a blue and red, fixed-wing light aircraft with a front propeller flew over their property with engine issues about 1:30pm on Saturday.
However, it was a pilot was practising force landing manoeuvrers, which alerted locals.
Fears of a crash prompted calls to authorities, but police were later contacted by the pilot after they saw media reports of the search.
"A person contacted the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra advising that he was flying a Piper Warrior four-seater plane in the area at the exact time as reported," police said.
