“At this time, the rescuers are working on recovering and moving the pilot safely to a hospital in Ipoh to be treated,” said transport minister Wee Ka Siong in a Facebook post.

He said the crash site was detected at 8.20am.

The privately owned Eurocopter EC120B helicopter had taken off from Subang airport at 11.37am yesterday for a general flight to Ipoh, where it was expected to land at 12.37pm.

Contact was lost at 12.16pm and a rescue operation was launched in southern Perak.

Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) chief executive Chester Voo said the helicopter had been shown on radar as suffering a sharp loss of altitude in less than a minute.

No distress calls were heard from the pilot as controllers tried to make contact, he said in a Bernama report.

Rescue operations were suspended at 8pm yesterday because of bad weather.

Industry sources told FMT last night the pilot is a Hong Kong national who is in the process of selling the helicopter.

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