Two men escape injury in plane crash

Pupils have watched in horror as a light plane crashed into a paddock next to their school at Cape Clear, near Ballarat, in central Victoria.

The single-engine aircraft hit a power line and lost a wing as it came down near an oval belonging to Cape Clear Primary School, at around 1.30pm.

Principal Christian Brown said some of his students saw the plane come down.

"It was a very lucky escape," Mr Brown told AAP.

"We're about 150m away from the crash site."

An ambulance officer who attended said the pilot did a good job avoiding the school.

The pilot and passenger walked away from the plane with only minor injuries.

The plane's wing clipped a powerline, cutting power to about 60 Cape Clear properties in the small town south of Ballarat.

The pilot, a man in his 50s, and a male passenger in his 40s sustained bruises and abrasions but didn't need to go to hospital.

Ambulance Victoria group manager Graham McGrath said the powerline caught the undercarriage of the aircraft, and it came down nose-first.

"The pilot had done a really good job to make sure it was in an open paddock away from the school," he said.

The County Fire Authority's Gavin Hope says the pilot attempted to land when weather conditions began to deteriorate.

"They were attempting to land in the paddock so they were coming in fairly slowly but the power line was there," he told the ABC.

"They didn't see that due to the conditions.

"Just about 10 metres above the ground they connected with the power line which actually flipped them and put them down into the ground."

He said the pilot and passenger were very lucky to walk away without serious injury.

"The wings are very mangled and the nose has been punched in and the landing front wheel has also been bent up," he said.

"Luckily enough the pilot and co-pilot have been able to get out unscathed."

Robert Butler, who owns the Cape Clear hotel, said he saw the plane hovering around, looking for somewhere to land.

"The plane they said is pretty well messed up," Mr Butler told AAP.

"The two blokes got out with a scratch and a bruise."

Nearby residents are experiencing some power outages as a result of the crash.

The CFA says the cause of the crash in under investigation.