Small plane crashes in Dubai killing three Britons, South African

Dubai airport was closed for a short while following the crash

A small plane crashed south of Dubai airport killing three Britons and one South African, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement on Thursday.

The four-seat plane, a DA42 registered in the United Kingdom, was on a mission to calibrate terrestrial navigation systems at the airport, the statement said.

The aircraft went down five kilometres south of the international hub.

An investigation is underway. Air traffic at the airport has returned to normal, it said.

An earlier report by the emirate's government media office said the pilot and co-pilot of a small plane had been killed.

The aircraft, owned by US tech giant Honeywell, crashed due to a technical malfunction, it said.

It added that all operations at the airport were running smoothly after "a slight delay and diversion of some flights as a precautionary measure".

Dubai's international airport is one of the world's busiest aviation hubs.