The wreckage of a light plane missing for two days in the Snowy Mountains has been found following an extensive search in trying conditions.

The alarm was raised for pilot David Stephens on Tuesday when he failed to arrive at Moruya Airport on the south coast of NSW.

A rescue helicopter located what is believed to be the wreck of the Bega man’s 1966 Beechcraft Debonair plane about 4pm on Thursday.

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It was found close to “the plane’s last known GPS location”, near Khancoban.

“NSW Police Force now have carriage of this matter with investigations to continue tomorrow,” authorities said.

They provided no update on the pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft.

Earlier, Stephens’ wife Lynda Leigh said he disappeared “on his flight home ... after having his aircraft inspected” in Victoria.

“It is known that the mountain weather can turn very quickly, and we can only assume he must have seen a way over the mountain to decide not to turn back to Wangaratta,” she told the ABC in a statement.

“David has quite a bit of experience flying that plane, but we can’t know what situation he was facing, and we’ll only have answers once they locate the plane and with that David.”

She said Stephens is a member of the Frog’s Hollow Flyers aero club, a rally sport commentator on the Sapphire Coast region, and an accountant just two months from retirement.

“Which makes the situation more heartbreaking as his family was looking to spend more time with him after decades of work,” Leigh said.

A huge multi-agency search team was launched to find Stephens earlier this week, with rescue crews taking to the air and sky as temperatures plummeted.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said ground crews had faced “rugged and inaccessible alpine terrain, impacted by recent heavy snow falls”