Households watched in shock as a skydiving aircraft carrying their family members on what was meant to be an exciting introduction to parachuting crashed in northeastern France on Sunday, killing all 11 folks on board, authorities stated.
The useless included 5 parachuting instructors, 5 novice jumpers and the pilot, Inside Minister Laurent Nunez stated. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot stated it was France’s largest aviation accident involving skydiving in about 30 years.
“A number of the victims’ households witnessed the plane falling with their very own eyes. So there’s super emotion and an excellent larger psychological trauma,” Nunez stated.
He refused to take a position on what brought about the crash however stated the aircraft dropped out of the sky immediately. He stated it had simply taken off from the Nancy-Essey airfield on the outskirts of the town of Nancy when it got here down about 300 meters (yards) from the runway.
Yves Séguy, prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle area, stated the aircraft suffered a malfunction and “fell nearly vertically,” narrowly lacking a built-up space.
Get every day Nationwide information
Get every day Canada information delivered to your inbox so you may by no means miss the day’s high tales.
“Had it occurred just some dozen meters away, the accident might have brought about collateral casualties,” he stated.
The aircraft banked to the left after takeoff and crashed lower than a minute later close to homes, in keeping with the flight monitoring service Flightradar24.
Police cordoned off the crumpled wreckage.
Flight monitoring websites recognized the aircraft as a single-engine Pilatus PC-6, a small transporter of freight, passengers and skydivers.
The parachutists had been to have jumped as tandems, Nancy Mayor Mathieu Klein instructed public broadcaster France Data. Tandem jumps are skydiving experiences the place two folks, usually an teacher and a novice jumper, are connected collectively for the descent.
Emergency providers responded instantly and had been offering psychological help to victims’ family members, officers stated. The Paris prosecutor’s workplace is main the crash probe, Nunez stated.
A resident, recognized as John Curaku by BFM-TV, instructed the broadcaster that he was in his yard when he heard what seemed like a aircraft’s engine stopping, instantly adopted by a bang.
He stated he went to the crash website and “there have been no indicators of life,” with two of the our bodies thrown a number of meters (yards) from the aircraft.
—Leicester reported from Paris and Hatton from Lisbon, Portugal.
© 2026 The Canadian Press