A STUDENT pilot died when the near-new light plane he was flying crashed in a paddock in Luddenham, in Sydney's west, yesterday afternoon.

The man was the sole occupant of the two-seat Liberty XL2 single-engine aircraft, which had taken off from Bankstown Airport.

The plane, owned by the Sydney Flight Training Centre, crashed in a paddock near the intersection of Willowdene Avenue and Vicar Park Lane, near the busy Great North Road but away from built-up areas.

Emergency services arrived at the scene shortly after 4.30pm and a doctor from NRMA CareFlight confirmed the man had died in the crash.

The Sydney Flight Training Centre had registered the American-made aircraft in June.

The flying school's website says it is the southern hemisphere's fastest-growing international flight college, with its 40 instructors teaching students from Australia and around the world including Malaysia, Japan, India, Hong Kong and Europe.

The school's owner and chief instructor, Barry Diamond, was Qantas's flight training manager after starting his career as a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Navy. He became general manager of flight operations for Qantas and was a flight operations inspector for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and chief pilot of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Mr Diamond was unable to comment at time of press last night.

An XL2 aircraft crashed in Florida last year, which the pilot survived. Liberty's Australian distributor could not be contacted for comment.

Police and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will investigate the crash. The bureau said four investigators would attend the crash site.

Last week a young family was killed when their light plane crashed in the Hunter Valley during their first flight since buying the plane. Scott Menrath, 39, Monique Fraser, 38, and their son, Daniel, 7, had been flying from Sydney to Brisbane when their Cessna 206 crashed in the Great Dividing Range.