Two people were killed when a small plane crashed in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Soest. They crashed immediately after takeoff at around 4:30 p.m. at the airport in Bad Sassendorf, a police spokesman told the dpa news agency. He initially gave no information about the identity of the two occupants of a Cessna 172.
The police spokesman said that numerous people witnessed the crash because they, like the passengers of the crashed plane, had taken part in a so-called fly-in at the small airfield. A “fly-in” is a meeting of pilots to which they travel in their aircraft.
The cause of the crash was initially unclear. The plane landed on a nearby meadow. Eyewitnesses ran to the scene of the accident and tried to provide first aid, said the police spokesman.
The airport was then closed and the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation began work on site. Neither a technical defect nor human error or any other cause could be ruled out.
Just this morning, a 67-year-old pilot in a biplane crashed and died near Porta Westfalica, about 100 kilometers as the crow flies. As far as he knows, the two accidents have nothing to do with each other, said the police spokesman.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240907-930-226134/2
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