Eleven killed after plane carrying skydivers crashes in eastern France
Photo: Reuters.
A routine skydiving excursion turned into an unimaginable tragedy on Sunday when a civilian aircraft crashed in Tomblaine, eastern France, claiming the lives of all eleven people on board.
The plane, belonging to a parachutist school, had barely lifted off from Nancy-Essey airfield before it plummeted almost vertically into a built-up area, crashing perilously close to a housing estate and a shopping center. Among the victims were the pilot, five student skydivers, and five instructors.
Remarkably, no bystanders were injured, a fact that Prefect Yves Seguy described as fortunate. "The plane fell in the immediate vicinity of a housing estate, on the edge of the airfield," he told BFM, expressing relief that the death toll did not climb higher.
In a devastating revelation, Thierry Pechey, president of the local independent nurses' order, confirmed that half of the skydivers who perished were nurses. The grief was compounded as officials revealed that relatives of the victims had been waiting at the airfield when the disaster struck. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez are en route to the site, with Tabarot calling the incident a "terrible tragedy" as police urge the public to steer clear of the area in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.
Source: BBC
