Three dead in light aircraft crash on motorway near Paris after fears it may have hit an electric power cable before coming down
- Did you see what happened? Contact [email protected]
Tragedy struck as three people were killed in a motorway plane crash east of Paris on Sunday.
A light aircraft was reported to have come down on the A4 motorway in Nosiel around 4pm after the plane hit an electric power cable, according to a police source.
The motorway was blocked in both directions, the source confirmed, asking not to be named. No vehicles were hit.
Images from the scene showed officials in hi-vis jackets attending to the scene of an unturned plane straddling the central reservation.
Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told the Afp news agency the victims were 'two men and a woman', adding the pilot 'was born in 1989'.
The plane was reported to have crashed around 3:45pm on Sunday into the A4 motorway
An investigation is now underway, led by the air transport gendarmerie, according to Le Parisien[2].
The Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) has also opened an 'administrative investigation'.
'A tourist plane from Lognes-Emerainville (aéroflight flying club) has crashed for the second time in a year on the A4 near Collégien,' the Association of residents of the Lognes aerodrome said in a statement.
The residents' association has been critical of the risk of planes flying over an urban area in the past.
The horror followed a similar incident last July in which a small tourist plane missed its landing at Lognes-Emerainville airstrip and hit the barrier on the A4.
All three onboard escaped alive, with only the pilot sustaining minor injuries.
References
- ^ James Reynolds (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Le Parisien (www.leparisien.fr)