A skydiving flight carrying 10 skydivers and a pilot went down near Nancy, France, on Sunday, killing all 11 people on board, according to local authorities.
The aircraft departed Nancy-Essey airfield at about 11 a.m. local time and came down near the edge of the aerodrome in Tomblaine, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle region of northeastern France. Authorities said those killed included five instructors, five first-time skydivers and the pilot. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot described the accident as France’s largest skydiving-related aviation accident in about 30 years.
The German-registered aircraft was a 1991 Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 Turbo Porter operating for Tandemotion Parachutisme. According to available ADS-B data, the aircraft appeared to attempt a return to the airfield shortly after taking off, immediately following an earlier parachuting flight that is also included in the data.
According to regional prefect Yves Seguy, the aircraft experienced a malfunction after takeoff and came down almost vertically near a residential area and shopping center. Seguy told BFMTV that the accident occurred close to a built-up area, but that there were no casualties on the ground.
“Had it occurred just a few dozen meters away, the accident could have caused collateral casualties,” Seguy said, according to The Associated Press.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said some relatives of those on board were at the airfield to watch the tandem skydives and witnessed the accident. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the cause of the accident, and Nunez said officials would not speculate ahead of the inquiry.
The accident follows another recent skydiving accident in the U.S. earlier in June, when 12 were killed in Missouri.
