Shortly after 3pm a glider carrying a 21-year-old female student and a male instructor in his 50s crashed approximately 100 metres east of the runway.

Ararat Police Sergeant Peter Hawkins said the incident took place not long after take off.

"Shortly after 3pm we had a glider being taken into the air by a tug plane," he said.

"The glider has reached a height of approximately 50 to 100 metres and for some reason, that is still to be investigated, once it disconnected from the tug plane it has spiralled back down to the ground and the pilot, who was a student and the instructor, were both deceased at the scene."

Emergency services, including police, Paramedics, Air Ambulance, Country Fire Authority and State Emergency Service arrived at the scene a short time later.

The woman was killed instantly in the accident, while paramedics spent an hour attempting to resuscitate the male before he was also pronounced deceased.

Sergeant Hawkins and Acting Sergeant Shaun Allen spent yesterday morning inspecting the wreckage with a representative from the Gliding Federation of Australia.

"It will be a thorough investigation with outside help into the cause of the incident, which will then be presented to the Coroner," Sergeant Hawkins said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is expected to join the investigation, as authorities still tried to determine the cause of the crash when The Ararat Advertiser went to press yesterday.

Gliding Federation of Australia's technical adviser, Christopher Thorpe, said the investigation would take time with a number of possibilities to look into.

"I haven't seen the witness reports so I can't say exactly what has happened, but it looks as though the aeroplane may have got a bit slow, stalled and (the glider) spun," he said.

"It might not have been an error, it might have been a contribution of the rope on the wing.

"We are likely to come up with a reasonable scenario of what has happened, but it is unlikely we will ever be able to tell with 100 percent certainty what has happened, because we can't obviously talk to the occupants."

Mr Thorpe said both victims from Melbourne were well known in the gliding community.

It is reported the male instructor had more than 20 years' gliding experience and was very involved with the gliding administration.

"He did a lot for the Gliding Federation. He was a member of the board for many years and he had still been very active in the development side of the sport," Mr Thorpe said.

The Grampians Soaring Club were in the closing stages of hosting a training weekend when the tragic event unfolded.

It is believed the female student had made the trip to Ararat from Tarneit with her father, who Mr Thorpe said was the club's chief flying instructor.

Sergeant Hawkins played down reports that an explosion-type sound was heard from the aircraft at the time of the accident.

"There was no fire and no explosion, there would have been a significant sound or noise when the glider hit the ground, but there was no fire or explosion," he said.

Ararat Police have a number of eye-witness reports, however Sergeant Hawkins asked if anyone else in the community witnessed the incident to contact the station on 5355 1500.