Eleven killed as tourist plane carrying skydivers crashes near Nancy, France
A tourist aircraft carrying skydivers crashed in Tomblaine, near Nancy in northeastern France, on Sunday morning, killing 11 people. The plane came down in Rue Salvador Allende at around 11am local time, prompting an immediate emergency response. Police urged residents to stay away from the area as firefighters and medical teams worked at the scene.
Sponsored
Authorities said the crash site was being treated as a possible explosion risk, adding to the urgency of the response. The Meurthe-et-Moselle police asked the public to avoid the roads around the crash location so emergency services and law enforcement could reach the site without obstruction. The prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle said a departmental operations centre had been activated to monitor the incident in real time.
The aircraft is understood to have taken off from Nancy-Essey aerodrome and was carrying a group of skydivers on a training flight when it crashed. The people killed have not been publicly identified. France's interior minister, Laurent Nunez, was travelling to the crash site, underlining the seriousness of the incident and the scale of the official response.
The crash is significant because it involved a civilian aircraft in a populated area and caused multiple fatalities in a single event. It also triggered restrictions on movement around the site, suggesting authorities were concerned about both rescue access and possible secondary hazards. Aviation accidents involving skydiving flights are rare, but when they occur they can raise immediate questions about aircraft condition, flight operations and safety oversight.
Sponsored
Tomblaine is close to Nancy and lies in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department, where local and national authorities were coordinating the response. The activation of the departmental operations centre indicates that the incident was being handled as a major emergency rather than a routine crash. The presence of firefighters, medical teams and police at the scene suggests the response was focused on securing the area and managing the aftermath.
What remains unclear is what caused the aircraft to crash and whether any technical fault, operational issue or other factor was involved. Officials have not yet released the identities of those killed or given details about the condition of the aircraft before the crash. Further updates are expected from local authorities as the investigation and emergency response continue.
Sponsored
