Renmark plane crash: Pilot's brother says it's a 'miracle' he survived

The brother of a pilot seriously injured after crashing his plane in South Australia's Riverland region says it's a "miracle" he is alive.

James Whitrow helped pull the shattered wreckage off his badly injured brother just moments after watching his light plane plummet to the ground, clipping powerlines, in North Renmark on Saturday.

EARLIER: Light plane crashes in South Australia's Riverland region

Tim Whitrow is being treated for leg and chest injuries in Royal Adelaide Hospital, having been airlifted there from Berri Hospital in a critical condition following the crash.

The 49-year-old winemaker was in the Riverland helping his family shoot a film and was returning to Aldinga, south of Adelaide, when the accident occurred just after 6pm.

"We all ran down there and we couldn't actually see Tim – we could just see the plane in literally a thousand pieces," his brother said.

"I thought 'he's dead'. I thought there was no way anybody could survive that."

"We saw his body, and a few of us then lifted the wreckage off of him. We lifted the engine off of him – we don't know how."

Mr Whitrow's mother, a trained nurse, then launched into action, performing CPR until paramedics arrived.

A witness to the crash, Tara, told 9News she saw the wing of the plane fall off in the moments before the crash.

James said he still doesn't know what happened, but it was a "miracle" he survived.

"People don't survive plane crashes like this," he said.

Mr Whitrow said his brother was a "very good" pilot, having clocked over 6,000 hours in the air and done training in aerobatics.

"He's a very responsible pilot. He always does all the checks and balances every time before he takes off."

Recreational Aviation Australia has launched an investigation into what caused the crash.