Skydiving plane crash kills 11 in France

AFP | Tomblaine

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A skydiving plane crashed Sunday in eastern France, killing all 11 people on board, local authorities said, in one of the country’s deadliest ever light aircraft accidents.

The crash in the town of Tomblaine killed five instructors, five students, and the pilot, said Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.

The students were a group of nurses, according to a source close to the case and confirmed by the head of Meurthe-et-Moselle’s nursing council, Thierry Pechey.

"They were colleagues who had decided to go on a first skydiving jump, no doubt to unwind, as we're going through a difficult time with the heatwave," he said.

The aircraft, registered in Germany, crashed in a grassy area near the runway of the Nancy-Essey aerodrome, close to a residential area and two roads, an AFP journalist reported.

The cause of the incident was not immediately clear and a technical investigation had been opened, said Amaury Lacote, deputy public prosecutor in the eastern city of Nancy.

Police urged people on the social media platform X to "strictly avoid" the area around the airport to allow emergency services access.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot are expected to visit the scene of the accident later this afternoon.