A helicopter crashed off the coast of Dubai during a night training flight, with two pilots on board missing, the United Arab Emirates' aviation authority said on Friday.

The Bell 212 helicopter went down in the Gulf at around 8:30 pm (1630 GMT) on Thursday after taking off from Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport, the authority said, quoted by the official WAM news agency.

The pilots -- an Egyptian and a South African -- had been on a training flight for AeroGulf, the UAE's leading commercial helicopter operator.

"Search and rescue teams have recovered the wreckage and are still searching for the crew," the aviation authority said, adding investigations were underway.

AeroGulf was founded in 1976 to provide services to the oil and gas industry, before expanding its services to other sectors.

In 2022, a paramotor flyer crashed in Dubai, killing the pilot. The same year, a single-engine passenger plane crashed into a parking lot in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, injuring one person.