An Australian pilot was killed in a crash while transporting 400 lbs of SpaceX-branded cocaine in Brazil.

Timothy J Clark, 46, was piloting a single-engine aircraft when it crash-landed in a sugarcane field in Coruripe, Alagoas on September 14.

Aerial footage shows the wreckage of the plane along a roadside cutting through the plantation, with debris scattered across the ground.

The aircraft was reportedly registered in Zambia and had been operating in Brazil for at least two years.

Local media said the cocaine was packed in bricks marked with the logo of Elon Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX.

Emergency crews were called in by nearby farmers due to the risk of an explosion.

Tactical police units later collected the drugs, while military personnel secured the crash site.

Police valued the shipment at about BRL 9 million (approximately 1.2 million GBP) but reported that the same quantity could fetch up to AUD 80 million (approximately 42 million GBP) on the Australian market.

The drugs were taken under escort to the Integrated Public Security Centre in the city.

Investigators said the pilot appeared to attempt a landing on a road inside the plantation, behind the Gerson Amaral Stadium, though it was unclear whether this was an emergency or a planned manoeuver.

No flight plan had been filed, and the intended destination of the aircraft remains unknown.

The Anti-Narcotics Division is investigating the origin and destination of the cocaine, while the Centre for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents of the Brazilian Air Force is examining the crash.