11 killed in skydiving plane crash in France: Officials
Eleven people were killed on Sunday when a plane carrying a group of skydivers crashed in northeastern France, authorities said.
Sunday's crash occurred near the town of Tomblaine in France's Meurthe-et-Moselle region, according to a social media post from French Transport Minister Phillipe Tabarot.
"Terrible tragedy in Meurthe-et-Moselle, where a plane carrying participants in a skydiving activity crashed near Tomblaine. The human toll is particularly heavy: 11 people lost their lives," Tabarot said in the post. "I extend my most sincere condolences to their loved ones."
The pilot of the plane and all 10 passengers aboard perished in the crash, officials said. Five of the people killed were skydiving students and five were instructors, according to officials.
Yves Sguy, an official of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, told reporters that the crash occurred soon after the plane took off from the Nancy-Essey Airport on the outskirts of the city of Nancy, according to the Associated Press.
Sguy, who serves as the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, said the plane had a malfunction that caused it to plummet to the ground "almost vertically," the Associated Press reported.
The aircraft crashed close to a populated area, on the edge of a built-up area near the airfield, Sguy told the French television station BFM-TV.
"Had it occurred just a few dozen meters away, the accident could have caused collateral casualties," Sguy said.
The crash came about after a skydiving plane crashed on June 14 in Butler, Missouri, killing the pilot and 11 skydivers, officials said.
The Missouri crash occurred shortly after the plane, Pacific Aerospace P750, took off from the Butler Memorial Airport, Butler County Sheriff Chad Anderson said at a news conference on the day of the crash.
