“What was meant to be a day of excitement ended in tragedy. Families had gathered to watch their loved ones jump from the aircraft, only to see it crash less than a minute after leaving the ground.”
A skydiving plane crashed shortly after takeoff in eastern France on Sunday, killing all 11 people on board in one of the country’s deadliest civilian aviation accidents in recent years.
The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-6 operated by a skydiving school, took off from Nancy-Essey Airport near the town of Tomblaine at about 11 a.m. local time. On board were the pilot, five skydiving instructors, and five people preparing for tandem jumps. None survived.
Regional prefect Yves Séguy said the aircraft appeared to suffer a malfunction almost immediately after takeoff.
“The plane fell almost vertically,” Séguy told French broadcaster BFM-TV, adding that it came down just beside a residential area. “Had it occurred just a few dozen meters away, the accident could have caused collateral casualties.”
According to flight-tracking data, the aircraft banked to the left before crashing less than a minute into the flight. It came down near homes and a shopping area, but no one on the ground was injured.
The tragedy unfolded in front of relatives and friends who had gathered at the airfield to watch the scheduled skydives.
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Mathieu Klein, the mayor of nearby Nancy, said the victims died “in full view of their loved ones, who were preparing to film the tandem skydives.” Medical teams and psychologists were deployed to support grieving families and witnesses at the scene.
One local resident, John Curaku, said he knew something was wrong the moment he heard the aircraft overhead.
“I heard the engine stop, then immediately there was a bang,” he told BFM-TV. “There were no signs of life.”
Emergency services, including police, firefighters, and aviation investigators, quickly sealed off the crash site while specialists began examining the wreckage.
Authorities have not yet determined what caused the aircraft to lose control. France’s air accident investigation agency has opened a technical investigation, while prosecutors are also examining the circumstances surrounding the crash.
The aircraft was reportedly registered in Germany and had been chartered for a weekend skydiving event, a routine arrangement according to local officials. There was no immediate indication of bad weather or an explosion before impact, though investigators are expected to examine mechanical, operational, and environmental factors.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez travelled to the scene as authorities continued gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses.
For the families waiting at the airfield, it had begun as an ordinary Sunday morning and a chance to celebrate a first skydiving experience. Within moments of takeoff, that celebration turned into one of France’s worst light aircraft disasters, leaving investigators with the difficult task of explaining why the flight ended almost as soon as it began.
