Plane crash Paris: Three tourists killed as light aircraft crashes into motorway after 'hitting an electric power cable'
Three tourists are believed to have died when a plane crashed into a French motorway outside Paris.
The light aircraft is believed to have crashed on the A4 highway near the French town of Collegien in the Ile-de-France region on Sunday (30 June). Images from the scene show a crushed aircraft lying across the road's central reservation.
A police source has reportedly told the AFP press agency that the aircraft hit an overhead power cable before the incident. According to the source, the motorway was blocked in both directions and no cars were hit.
"A tourist plane from Lognes-Emerainville (aéroflight flying club) has crashed for the second time in a year on the A4 near Collégien," the Association of residents of the Lognes aerodrome said in a statement. Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told the AFP news agency that the victims were “two men and a woman'”, adding the pilot had only held a pilot's licence since last year.
The Meaux prosecutor's office identified the plane as a Cesna 172, as reported by Le Figaro. Smoke appeared to billow from a part of the plane stranded in the road, with officials on hand to guide the traffic.
It was said to have taken off from the Lognes-Emerainville airfield around half an hour before the tragedy. The Meaux prosecutor's office has since ordered an investigation into involuntary manslaughter, led by the air transport gendarmerie, according to Le Figaro. The Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) has also opened an “administrative investigation”, according to Le Parisien.