Eleven people were killed Sunday when a plane carrying prospective skydivers crashed shortly after taking off from an airfield near Nancy, France. The German-registered Pilatus PC-6 single-engine aircraft reportedly encountered difficulties and came down around 11 a.m. local time.
The flight had been hired by a company that organizes introductory parachute jumps. Those on board included the pilot, five instructors, and five individuals who were preparing for their first tandem jumps. Local media reports indicated that five of the victims were self-employed nurses from the area.
The plane crashed on a road adjacent to an Auchan supermarket in Tomblaine, a suburb of Nancy. It had departed from the Nancy-Essey airfield just minutes before the incident. Following the crash, the area was cordoned off by emergency services, who searched for survivors.
A spokesman for the Meurth-et-Moselle Prefecture confirmed the incident occurred in Tomblaine, involving a civil aircraft that took off from Nancy-Essey aerodrome. A formal investigation will be launched in conjunction with the air transport gendarmerie brigade of Nancy-Metz, according to local prosecutor Amaury Lacote.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. A power outage was reported in the vicinity of Tomblaine following the incident, though a connection to the crash has not been confirmed. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez is expected to visit the site.
The nationalities and names of those on board have not yet been released.