French skydiving plane crashes near Nancy, killing all 11 onboard

Five students and five instructors dead along with pilot after plane fell suddenly near aerodrome, says prefect A skydiving plane has crashed in north-eastern France, killing all 11 people onboard, according to the region’s prefect. The parachuting-school plane crashed near Nancy at 11am, said Yves Séguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region. The pilot and 10 passengers – five ‌students and five instructors – died, the prefecture reported. 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 plane suffered a malfunction and “fell almost vertically” after taking off from Nancy-Essey airfield on the outskirts of Nancy, Séguy said. “The plane, which was transporting 11 people, fell suddenly immediately next to the aerodrome. There were no collateral victims.” It crashed on the edge of a built-up area near the airfield, he told the broadcaster BFMTV. “Had it occurred just a few dozen metres away, the accident co